It depends what you’re looking for. If you don’t care about story and community, you can purchase a boost right to the endgame (or I guess, start-game of this expansion) and start playing the latest content almost immediately. It’s really not a hard game even at the 2nd hardest content tier. I could regularly out-DPS the DPS players as a healer in pugs.

However, FF14 also famously has some of the best storytelling and communities in the genre. Even catching up to Stormblood would take hundreds of hours and there are like 3 new expansions since then.

Personally the appeal to me was the immersion, working through the story from the start, making bonds and connections with other players and your guild. This takes time and if you have it, the game will show you plenty to do.