Do the ingame GMs even do anything?

nah they can't...too busy sorting thru all the AFK tickets sent and missing the tickets that really matter

Besides the RMT shouters and /tellers, yes, GMs do things in-game. When we were having the server shutdowns in 1.0, we had GMs hosting events in Ul'dah with the monsters. Players would fight the overly powered foes, GMs would cheer own and even raise fallen players. That was the best fun. Plus we got to see multiple versions of Nael van Darnus parading around Ul'dah!

Now, if SE did the smart thing and banned China from accessing their servers you wouldn't have RMT. And yes, before someone goes and says there's some american ones, they are mostly from china. 100% sure that if they did, no more RMT. Go look at what's left of Tera, EnMasse did that and they don't have any gold sellers.

Honestly I don't see why there would be any Gil sellers at all, I may level slower by questing then doing FATEs but I have never wanted for money ever, I have done alot of Teleporting/Chocobo porters.

Kinda wishing Vesper Bay had a crystal though for all the times you have to go back there.

SE customers service is very poor...the GM service is non existent.