Okay, so across all these threads, there's a lot of dumb stuff. Going to correct some misconceptions.

-NOT OPTIONAL. Seriously, it is. The whole game is optional. Fancy mount? Optional. Glamours? Optional. Weddings? Optional. Final Coil? Optional. FFXIV is in no way an essential good. Medicine, shelter, food, all that shit is not optional. Literally everything to do with a video game is optional. "Because I want it" does not make it "not optional." It means it's an option you want.

-"My sub pays for the servers!" OR "Cash shop means more actual content for everyone!" Neither of these is strictly true. It's highly unlikely SE operates like this, really. The money you pay for your sub or your cash shop items goes into SE's bank account. After paying the company-wide essentials, like salaries for their legal and accounting teams, executive management, taxes, etc, Matsuda and the rest of the board decide what to do with the money. They might make boatloads of cash from FFXIV and only give the FFXIV team the bare minimum, instead putting most of the money the game made into developing XV or Project Flare or into acquisitions. It's likely though, that because XIV makes so much money, when Yoshi-P goes into a meeting with the board, he can argue that giving his team more money is a sound investment.

-"It's unethical/anti-consumer" A few things. First, cash shop isn't manipulative or coercive in any way. By this I mean, you simply lose out on content by not purchasing. This is unlike, say, Puzzles and Dragons, where you will struggle to advance without paying real money. It's also not random, which would be a significant problem. With the FFXIV cash shop, you pay for something, you get it. Randomness appeals to some innate human psychology that makes us want to spend more. Second point on this is that SE is under no obligation to make you happy. They do not answer to you, but to their shareholders. I don't know the exact laws of Japan, but that obligation to shareholders is legal as well. They could probably pressure Matsuda or other members of the board to step down. Their only "obligation" to keep you happy is so that you continue paying them money.

-Which brings me to my last point. If you're unhappy with this, unsubscribe. SE doesn't care at all whether or not you're happy, (I mean, they might as people, but as a company, nope) but whether or not you're paying your sub. I'm not saying this to mean "lol if you aren't happy get out", I mean to say that in the end, FFXIV is a product: it's end goal is not to please consumers, but to make money for SE's shareholders. If the Cash Shop means FFXIV makes more money, it will stay.