Quote Originally Posted by Verlyn View Post
Real money might have been used to obtain the item, but the item is the thing being exchanged for gil. It's not a guaranteed change, either and the value will fluctuate by demand.
Again, no gil is being generated by this. RMT is bad because bots are generating inhuman amounts of gil and introducing it into the economy by selling it to people through shady services that harvest their accounts.

This is just some guy plunking $20 on a ring and offering it up for sale.
SE has always had a stance that people cannot profit via the use of real money. These people are profiting from their shortsightedness as they are making gil without ANY actual effort. They are paying to win at this point as well. Whether or not the gil is being generated is not the issue here. The issue is as Chrillix says, it's someone not actually doing anything in-game and making gil for it.