I’ve been revisiting anno 2205, infamously the ugly duckling of the Anno series of RTS games. I don’t mind so much the fact that it’s different, lacks customisation and random map generation - I’m bothered because the game is so slow to progress through on challenge settings, and it feels like a game designed just to artificially waste your time; in other anno games, you can always pull tricks to dig yourself out of economic crisis - selling off assets and surplus goods, completing quests for other parties, or taking loans. 2205 is very very confined in terms of what you can do to financially recover in the early game and forces you into a lot of military events.
Not strictly an mmo but the original Guildwars might be fun for you, it’s a lot more story focused and if you can find people playing it is fun to find groups in
I probably still have a copy of the original Guildwars and played it a lot, all single player. IIRC there was multiplayer but it was optional, not mandatory and the game played more like a traditional RPG. I never got back into it despite there being a sequel but it definitely wasn’t the worst. I think that’s the way to do this stuff - make people buy the game and design the game to be enjoyed. If monetization is needed then sell cosmetics, clan stuff etc. which don’t impact on the game.
Around the same period of time I also tried games like Dark Age of Camelot, City of Heroes, City of Villains, A Tale in the Desert (a weird indy MMO), Lord of the Rings Online and a bunch of others. I even played World of Warcraft in beta, and a few times for short stints but always the same grind.
I do agree that free to play with cosmetics is generally the way to run these games, though it is a shame that nowadays a lot of the best cosmetics aren’t free and are instead stuck behind a pay wall.
I do have a soft spot for Eve Onlines plex system where you can buy it with in game money if youbare heavily focused on the game though.
It sounds like you are generally into single player rpg’s more than mmo’s which I can totally understand.
I recently picked up Tainted Grail: Fall of Avalon though haven’t spent much time on it yet, you might like that one.