I disagree. It was a decent gesture by the dev team back in the early stages of Heavensward when people suggested that having bad luck and 2 layers of RNG (the actual drop and then lotting against 7 other people) was frustrating and thought spending a large amount of totems on mount whistles was an acceptable stopgap for those who were more than competent in the fight, but had the worst luck. Saying we are lucky we have totem trade-ins for mounts is like saying we're lucky we have a totem trade-in for weapons in the first place (requested from ARR primals) or even a place to give feedback at all (as a blanket excuse for everything these forums have ever asked for and got implemented).
Honestly? I'm also of the opinion that the mount should be purchasable right off the bat too (99 runs isn't anything to scoff at), and it doesn't cheapen the value of the mounts "won" through sheer dumb luck. And I run into far more people who get fed up/demoralized and/or look at their 99th token as "the end" and quit the primal entirely than those few who are hungry enough to keep trying after their 99th token. I think it's a bit desperate that they hold-out allowing the trade-ins sooner on the grounds that they can entice some people to keep gambling their time for the hope of seeing the drop and outrolling the whole/most of the party. But eh, it's just a mount I suppose.
