Originally Posted by
Nicodemus_Mercy
Cost is relative.
...your purchasing power will be more limited...your ability to earn gil is hampered by all the competition. On a server that isn't overpopulated you might not think twice about dropping 200,000 gil for that beast tribe mount you just unlocked, because it'll be easy to make it back and/or you already have millions of gil already so 200k is a drop in the bucket. On an overpopulated server where making gil is more difficult, you'll feel the pinch of that 200k expenditure far more cause your ability to bounce back from the expenditure is more limited.
In fact, I'd say on an overpopulated server I'd feel more pressured to be an omni-crafter/gatherer so I could make everything I need rather than spend my precious gil on it.