Are the prices you have listed for Legacy, Entry or Standard account?
Thats not the question you asked. You asked should this game be free or be less a month. Thats a very different question. Really, I'm not sure there is any way to definitively answer were our money is getting spent since we have very little insight into the inner financial structure SE operates off and how much of FF14's revenue is redirected back into the game. Anything we discuss here is simply going to be baseless assumptions.
More over, I point back to one of my earlier posts where I asked a question. What are you comparing FF14 to in the release level of its content. Itself? Another game? If we look at it against its major competitors, particularly WoW, it holds up pretty well even with the break. Add to that they have outright stated that the 5 month break will not be the norm and they will be back to 3 month releases in 3.2.
As for the story, if that is all you remember from the story you haven't been paying much attention. You seem to have forgotten the Dragonsong War, the Garleans, the Warring Triad, the missing Scions, what is going on with Urianger, and the political upheaval in Ishgard. The story might have been shorter in 3.1 (a trend I hope doesn't continue) but its quality was up from 2.1. I mean, did you really find Moggle Mog and moving to Revenant's Toll to be that engaging a story?
Don't get me wrong, I don't think FF14 is without problems. Far from it. I just don't think it helps to leap to conclusions or make the assumption they are lying to us. The game is clearly lagging for many people and I have my own theories on why but until I'm not going to jump to conclusions. Further, $14 dollars a month is still great value for this game.
This is your opinion and opinions are subjective at best.
Alas, this is NOT how I feel. I feel patience is a virtue. I am having fun. 3.15 brought a lot of people back and now people are working together and making friends.
In my opinion, 3.15 is the best thing that could have happened. Hell, Heavensward zones are PACKED.
This game earns it's 12.99$ from me. Big time.
Take a look at this rather compelling argument against the subscription model.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NsQNoZxfS_o ( i appreciate that he thinks WoW and FFXIV are actually good models of sub games but it's still good argument)
Personally do i think that every 3 months i'm getting £25 worth of content? No. At least not anymore. I'm paying what £96 a year for the sub + base game and any expansions? Thats the equivalent of about 2 - 2 1/2 Witcher 3's. One Witcher 3 has more enjoyment than all of the hours put into FFXIV for me.
Now i can already feel the rage of some of you coming, and your right, it's not really a fair comparison, and to be honest i'm probably biased because i'm also likely the only person in the world that thinks the FFXIV STORY is garbage, but then again i'm not really a JRPG story fan so maybe i'm getting less value for my money than some of you.
Personally 13$ is very good especially considering other subscription prices are usually 15$.
The game should not go F2P and honestly the price is just fine.
Personally no, I wouldn't want the game to become free to play. What I would like though, is a return to what happened in 2012 whereby having both an FFXI and FFXIV subscription gave a reduction for the former. Shame it was only for a few months, I'd love a combined subscription for both games.