Remember when we used party flags? Follow

Causation vs correlation.

Partying wasn't the issue, it was the type of parties and the jobs that were required and excluded. SE attempted to fix that with Abyssea but missed the mark in my opinion. You could argue that Abyssea simplified the game beyond the game's intent, but to argue that the old days was ideal is misleading. It was broken from the start and SE fixes just never really solved the problems.

That was before they were replaced by a RDM and a BRD. Parties are fun, but not when you're waiting for specific jobs for a specific camp and all of the other max/min requirements.

I didn't miss the point, I was just adding to it. I wasn't trying to contradict your claim. It started off with WHMs having to hide their identity from getting so many requests to begging any party to get an invite. I was merely pointing out how the times have changed and I ended my comments by looping back to the topic that parties aren't bad.