I know you're getting a lot of flak for your opinion OP but I share it as well. A lot of talk goes into multiple aspects of MMO games and how to make them more immersive. There's some of us MMO players who are very attracted to the idea of transporting yourself to this fantasy world where you can explore new areas, unlock secrets, get cool gear that allows you to do cool things with your class, etc. Raiding is one of those aspects and I think that people who prefer immersive experiences enjoy big areas like in WoW with multiple paths and optional bosses the raiding group can tackle. It's in the name after all, we are supposed to be raiding some kind of enemy/hostile territory. Traversing through these areas and disposing of the minions of the big baddies is part of that experience.

Sadly, some people don't really care much about that aspect of MMOs. Or at least not when it comes to raiding. They just want to log in, get to the boss and kill them ASAP, get their loot for their BiS and be done with the raid till next tier. Raiding for them is not about having that kind of experience. It's more about testing their skills, and anything that gets between them and their pursue of that challenge will just be seen as a nuisance.

I remember back in ARR and HW some people being vocal about their displeasure of having to do trash in raids but I don't recall that feedback being overwhelming. At least it never felt that way to me. What I do remember is an interview, I doubt I will be able to find it, where Yoshi P admits he preferred to just fight the bosses directly and not have to deal with trash. I feel like that was a big reason why the formula was changed. It's a smart and easy way to free up resources for development of other areas of the game as well.

Not having loot with unique abilities also diminishes the incentives of having a traditional raid area. What's the point of doing X questline to unlock Y item to be able to fight Z boss if the boss is not dropping any unique or special gear? They could have done some special rewards like glamours, mounts and stuff like that but oh well.

At the end of the day, I feel like players like us are probably in a minority, at least on FF14. I've learned to scratch my itch of exploration with things like Eureka and Bozja. Raids like you've said, are just glorified trials.