Ok...let me level with you here SE...

[Greatguardian]

I'm not going to quote that wall of text but holy shit you're dense if you think there's no opportunity cost involved in giving items to members in exchange for DKP instead of selling them for gil. "But guuuuuuuyyyyys, I wasn't going to sell it anyways" doesn't change the objective value of any item or amount of time.

If an Ebody is worth 5M then it's worth 5M whether you sell it or give it to a shell member. You are giving them assets totaling 5 Million gil, typically at the expense of "DKP". Their DKP, which is a currency proportional to time invested, has a gil value. When you do a 1 hour event with the shell, you contribute 1 man-hour and are paid in the equivalent DKP. It's just money with a different name.

[Mahoro]

I'm not going to quote that wall of text but holy shit you're dense if you think there's no opportunity cost involved in giving items to members in exchange for DKP instead of selling them for gil. "But guuuuuuuyyyyys, I wasn't going to sell it anyways" doesn't change the objective value of any item or amount of time.

If an Ebody is worth 5M then it's worth 5M whether you sell it or give it to a shell member. You are giving them assets totaling 5 Million gil, typically at the expense of "DKP". Their DKP, which is a currency proportional to time invested, has a gil value. When you do a 1 hour event with the shell, you contribute 1 man-hour and are paid in the equivalent DKP. It's just money with a different name.

First, ad hominem on the "dense" shit.

Second, I never said there wasn't an opportunity cost, just that it varies for each person to such a degree that it isn't useful to look through that lens for everything you do in game. The 17 other people who go on an ADL run don't necessarily equal 17 * 2 mill if those people weren't going to farm currency anyway, and if you weren't going to force them to do so in lieu of ADL. You aren't giving them a Hobson's choice. Reimbursing with DKP or other rewards should be sufficient, and they will know that another event will benefit THEM next. That is the only way groups will accomplish these trials. SE misled the playerbase into thinking the majority could do it, but only a fraction of the playerbase would probably want DL/ADL drops so PUGs won't work by and large.

Third, any shell worth its salt doesn't reimburse gil for time in an exact ratio simply because different events are more "lucrative" than others. I agree when you say DKP is "money with a different name." My point was that it is not useful to distill every event in game down to a gil value because LS events vary widely and (as I keep saying in my posts) some items do not have a viable market alternative. Yes, "When you do a 1 hour event with the shell, you contribute 1 man-hour and are paid in the equivalent DKP." No, you aren't paid in opportunity cost of what you gave up in gil, because it varies by person and no group is going to pay you for your time that way outside of merc situations.

Back in the day, when LS's helped their BLM's get Novio Earrings, many manpower hours were expended and one person walked away with a 15 mill item, and perhaps another with a Love Torque. Would you demand an opportunity cost of 2 mill from the LS for your "time" in helping because you could have farmed that amount of gil gardening or goldsmithing? No, it's exactly as you said, you took the DKP and knew that another event would benefit you down the road. There is no difference here for shells that do ADL. The only reason you are seeing a difference here is that you can directly measure the "net loss" from your individual (read: subjective) activities in Dynamis far more easily than other events.