I'm not even going to dignify that other thread with a response that would bump it, so I'm starting my own.
Teleporting is EXTREMELY useful when trying to form a group; after waiting a half hour for that 4th person for Toto-rak Dungeon I need to get my group there as quick as possible so we can finish the dungeon before someone has to leave.
I can only imagine that it's even more essential for getting high-level dungeon/stronghold groups going without wasting any time on traveling through areas you've already been to.
-Teleportation DOESN'T take away from exploration since you need to explore and travel to Aetherytes to unlock them.
I would argue that teleportation with Anima actually IMPROVES exploration since you can get to faraway, unexplored places faster and then find new places, instead of running around the same area near your home point all the time.
-Teleportation DOESN'T make the MMO shorter. It does make it better though.
Teleportation gets me to the places relevant to me, so I spend more time playing and enjoying an MMO instead of autorunning along a long, boring path while watching Netflix to avoid driving myself crazy. It actually lengthens the amount of time I actually spend PLAYING the MMO. It keeps me interested in the game and makes the game more accessible to a larger audience, which will contribute to its success.
If you ran out of content in this MMO, it's not because of teleporting. It might be because of powerleveling, or it might be because you've been playing it for many hours and months and possibly years. I've played FFXIV for almost 2 months now and barely scratched the surface of everything I can do in this game, even though I use teleport plenty.
I'm usually sitting at 50-75 Anima at any given time so I don't even use teleport that often, but it's clear to me how useful and great it is for this game.
If you don't like it, don't use it, or go play FFXI