Quality of Life improvements for mechanics surrounding companions and mounts

While not strictly a user interface issue, the problems I want to discuss are mostly "interface" related, in the sense of interacting with the in-game world through the interface the game presents us with. I'm hardly the first to complain about how things work with mounts and companions, but I wanted to post a detailed and structured feedback thread for discussion, and in the hopes someone from SE actually reads this and picks up on the ideas contained herein. I will also link this to reddit.com/r/ffxiv for further discussion.

• While mounted, you can not do anything. At all. Not even speak to an NPC. This doesn't make any sense, from both lore and mechanic standpoint, and should be addressed. I can see combat being disabled, but using buffs, items, and other indirect actions such as pet stances, should definitely be allowed. I would not mind seeing casters being able to weave spells from their mounts, at least from a lore standpoint. It's not like sitting on a bird would keep them from pronouncing the incantations.
• Pets should probably at least ignore incoming damage while the owner is mounted. As it stands, running across aggressive mobs means having to summon my pet when I arrive at my destination. Alternatively, the pet could be "stowed away", and have it reappear once unmounted.
• Summoning a mount should not be interrupted by moving, and mounting or dismounting should not disable auto run. Lore-wise it makes perfect sense to jump onto your mount while running, and to just run off after jumping off. Mechanically, it's just a lot more convenient and less disruptive. When I want to hop onto my trusty steed, it's because I'm in a hurry. Having to stand there whistling while the chocobo appears is disruptive.
• When your bird is summoned, you should be able to mount without having to unsummon him first. I see no reason I can't hop onto the bird while he's summoned for combat, just as I should be able to jump back off him, which should not remove him from being summoned, as long as the gysahl timer is still active.
• Allow us to assign guard and steady stances to our birds.
• Allow us to summon the bird for combat while moving.
• Allow to auto-consume gysahl greens if the timer expires, instead of forcing us to summon the chocobo again.

not everyone enjoys being talked down to. so i can see why NPCs would find it a bit unpleasant to be talk down to from your mount. BUT the game should autdismount you once you click on an NPC to talk to.

in fact you should get auto dismounted if you cast any spell thats instant.

what is needed to be able to SET a default stance for the chocobo. why does he always comes into Free Stance when i have points invested elsewhere. it should come out as the user-set default stance always.