Did you miss the part where I said that FFI was release 30 years ago? Do you really think the standard of story telling in video game is the same as it was in 1987? Even If you want to disregard that, How about FF2, 4, 5, 6 that you conveniently left out? Don't they're all have heavy emphasis on their story? So that's leave only 1 and 3 as a non-heavy story title, it's still doesn't detract from the point that, success or failure, SE have been focusing heavily the majority of their FF stories - I can't believe that I have to type this out.
You keep saying how Square is going to chase the popular market with FFXVI when you ignore how FFVIII have drastic changes from FFVII - their break out hit. So what was the mass appeal that FF7 that they keep the same with FF8? The graphic and art style is drastically different, the skill system isn't the same, the party isn't similar, the story isn't similar. The world isn't the same. The few things things that they have in common is the 3D graphic, the world map and the attack command.