I love some of those, agree with many, don't agree with some, and hate a few. So... success?
My biggest issue is how many additional classes they added to make it work. That's a LOT of additional development I don't see happening. We'll definitely see SOME new classes, but I'm doubting we'll see anything close to that many even in a decade.
I can see them adding a daggers class and a gun class. But everything else seems close enough to an existing weapon that it will probably just exist for jobs, like greatswords.
Which isn't to say that I wouldn't love a greatsword class. I just see them expanding Gladiator or Marauder with it, in the context of a job. Same thing with Rapiers - why bother, when you can just toss them to the Gladiator, disable slashing-based attacks, and add a bunch of new piercing attacks with a Fencer job?
I'm leaning towards a female Elezen or Hyur. I'll probably end up with the Hyur, because there's something appealing about tanking giant mobs as an almost dainty-looking character, and Elezen are just too tall for that effect. The only thing that's pushing me towards Elezen is that in FFXI, I think Hume was the most popular race. I guess I was thinking that a Duskwight Elezen might make my character be a little more unique. I never liked playing as Tarutaru characters, and Lalafell have the same feel. I like them as a race, and I like when my friends play as them; it's just not something I'll choose. I don't like playing as the big races because while their actual groundspeed is the same as all the other races, the lumbering animations make them feel slow. Plus, in tight spaces, camerawork can be a *****.
Elvaan were pretty popular too, because of so many people trying to min/max for physical DPS. At the same time, Hume were popular because of so many people wanting to be average+ in every job (Humes were statistically pretty great across the board, compared to how high/low the stat could actually go based on race). Tarus were probably third, for people specializing in Magic. Then Mithra, for people with odd fetishes, and the desire to specialize into dex/agi-based classes. Galka were definitely last.
And yeah, Galka felt like you were moving so slow. Which was one reason I adored playing my Tarutaru.
For me, it's Lalafell, Miqo'te, or Hume.