Does SE know...

That they might be losing potential player base from limited retainer space?

I'm just getting past level 50 crafting, and the inventory load/juggle really takes away from game play.

Maybe they get extra income from some who pay monthly for more retainers, but is this balanced by the potential players like me that might let the main subscription lapse to go play something else?

I am to FF14 to get away from the extra pay model as it is a subscription MMO, yet here it is staring me in the face with its evil glare.

I'm not sure where is appropriate to leave feed back, but when my game time expires so to might I.

I suppose I offered a problem without a solution.

Make a raw material crafting bank.

Or, additional two retainers are unlocked with each major content block.

Completing ARR gives two more retainers, completing Heavensward gives two more retainers.

Very likely.

I'm not sure they care though. Their servers would probably choke if they had a large increase in playerbase and the engine is too old to make any significant game changes to keep a large playerbase hyped. They've had multiple chances to increase their playerbase, the most noteworthy being when the WoD expansion in WoW lost 5 million subs, many came to try FF14 and subsequently left. Enix seems perfectly content to sit on the small group they currently have who are fine with how the game is and milk them via microtransactions rather than ambitiously expand or offer better value.

There are so many issues relating to inventory space that retainers are minor in comparison. Our standard inventory that can't be increased too much too quickly or it breaks the servers, then the band aid we got in the form of Chocobo Saddlebag. But they did provide the Dresser which for a lot of players freed up a lot of space by not having to hoard gear over their retainers (although some of us are back to doing that to a degree, it's not as bad as it was pre-dresser era)

As for retainers themselves though, no one really needs 2 extra per expansion, that would be an unnecessary addition. Crafters/ Gatherers do benefit a lot from the extra space but who would need to gather/purchase mats if you have tonnes of inventory to store them. Definitely SE should of probably given us a 3rd free retainer by now, but they seem to have chosen the locked behind premium Companion App for that, so who knows...

they continue to expand our inventories in new ways every so many patches.
They upped inventory space with a housing "bank" storing housing items, freeing up space.

They upped or inventory/armory chest space with this expansion.

They upped our inventory again with the chocobo saddle bag.

They upped the extra retainer in heavensward.

and im pretty sure there was another that im forgetting, but oh well, maybe im wrong.
(EDIT: Changing currencies to key items to free up space)

I hear you, but as a really active crafter, I have all my materials together on 3 retainers, and really I could cut that down to 2, I just like to stay organized (one for mining, one for botany, one for everything else). Be conscientious of what you're holding on to. A lot of materials can be purchased from vendors. My dresser holds most of my glamour gear, and my saddlebag holds most of my items and tokens. It's doable. Just annoying. Keep the raw materials, not the processed ones, and don't hang onto stuff you rarely use.

Honestly, you are probably just holding on to way too much stuff. With stacks going to 999 now, the need for extra space to store materials doesn't really exist unless you are hoarding stuff that you aren't actively crafting. I craft and sell on the MB quite actively and never need more than 1 tab in my personal inventory, my retainers don't hold anything for me.

It seems the primary issue at hand has not been understood by most of the responses.

What might the potential lost player base be from "optional" additional charges?

I know when I first looked into FF14 in order to leave the MMO I was playing, I did not join, and did not bring my friends because they had just added the mog station two weeks before. I was disappointed.

There are people (like me), that see potential negative affects on the community or players from such a system.

It isn't just about inventory, although I do feel the amount of time spent trying to value, sell, and get rid of inventory items each week is time not spent playing. I also find it difficult to just dump it all as that seems wasteful.

I am letting my game time lapse today, for sure for the rest of the summer until school starts.

The potential player loss due to inventory restrictions is negligible because you're mentioning problems that every MMO has. They all have storage limitations. They all require you to manually discard or sell off items you don't want. WoW even has useless vendor trash drops off mobs with the sole purpose of cluttering up your inventory or wasting your time if you're willing to check each loot drop one by one to see if it's an item you want to keep.

Quite honestly, this game is very generous in the amount of default storage each character gets for no effort other than advancing through the MSQ far enough. 140 on the character, another 350 once retainers are unlocked and another 70 once you get your chocobo for a total of 560. That's not even including the Armoury chest and glamour dresser reserved for gear.

It's not an issue for the majority of players. The players primarily affected are the omni-crafters and they have problems with storage in all MMOs.

Quit if you're not enjoying the game but you're kidding yourself if you think you can walk into another MMO and not have problems with storage, especially if you intend to be an omni-crafter.