Blame the quality and tediosity of the questing the game has. By your standards WoW must be a hardcore game too requiring lots of time and hard work, and FFXIV is your escape from that.

Even with that silly notion, even you have to see how this doesn't exactly just create options for people. If the anima system is there it WILL be used by everyone. No one's going to go "Oh I have lots of time today I'll take a chocobo instead of taking this free warp I always have available at any location."