I've reached around Churning Mists and its annoying quests and the writing is still terrible. The whole story is feeling like sidequest of some sort as of now. Class quests are generally dull as well (I've seen DRK, DRG, MNK and PLD, and all failed to impress me). Ravana, despite being a fun fight, made no sense in the context of the story, especially because the dragon believes he'll uphold his promise of not bothering the dragons because the plot says so. Oh, well, okay.
The flight mechanic is interesting, too bad you get it when most of the usefulness of the area has disappeared. Also the new "stronger monsters" are just an annoyance that renders moving on foot a chore, especially if you're looking for currents.
The new dungeons up to now are again corridors, and most of the boss fights are still memorization+avoid moves.