Final Fantasy XIV to lack challenge?

Bolded part is actually a HUGE reason why challenge doesn't really exist for most players. It's funny because when you think about it, most of the time, when you see a player struggle with something you might otherwise think is easy content, it could just be because they don't have previous experience with similar situations. While it usually doesn't take very long to figure out most mechanics, many of us don't even give said newbie a second chance to figure it out without explaining the mechanic, and thus the actual challenge is over and it has devolved into the equivalent of a memory game.

Even then however, a challenge will only exist for so long. It's like a Rubik's Cube. Once you've solved it enough, or learned how to solve it, it's not even a challenge and serves as simply a memory test. I firmly believe that has always been the case when anyone (myself included) wants something from the old. We want that same experience back. The unfortunate thing is, is that the conditions themselves make that difficult, if not impossible. We already have much experience with things we didn't before. Information about something is readily available, and many players will be sure to let you know about that regardless if you wanted it or not.

Having said that though, I'd wager that figuring out something that they may not care about much or have the patience for isn't a good enough means for a challenge. Even back in the day, very few of us were pioneers about figuring out new things or finding efficient ways to do them. Not many have the patience for it anymore, and to be honest, the devs of today don't exactly make things interesting enough to be that way. No longer do we have mechanics where players can utilize multiple ways to handle them, based on party makeup, gear, and skill level. 

For example, when was the last time we had a mechanic where kiting was actually a common or plausible practice for some parties? I think back to XI and WoW, where some fights either mandated such practice or gave players the option to do it. In XI, my Dynamis LS would have a THF with Strider Boots (movement speed+) spawn the boss in Dynamis-Beaucidine and kite it. The reason being because the boss would cast Death at times, so kiting him around bought the group time to kill off the dragon that spawned with it. When the adds were down, the THF would run the boss back to the group for tanks to pick up.

Likewise in WoW, I think back to my Karazhan runs. The Moroes fight involved the boss with 4 adds that needed to be taken out by priority. My group didn't have enough skill or gear to quickly burn them down and no one had kiting experience except me. I offered to kite, as a Warlock, the more dangerous add because the devs allowed such freedom to be a thing. Adds were CC'd, kited, and prioritized to be burned down. Most of us had additional tasks, even as DPS (like my kiting obviously meant I was going to be low/last on the meters). We could use some CC on these mobs and utilize whatever means we could to win. And win we did. It was a lot of fun to figure this stuff out because it was unorthodox and something our specific group just needed to do. Today, players and devs generally have a specific way they want you to beat bosses. Deviation typically results in mockery or nerfs. It's sad really.