I kind of agree with Kiara on this. I was unable to cover my rank 40 chocobo because of the way the system works.
See I read all of the NPCs chat options, I knew how to cover and where to go. Yet apparently it required a quest to unlock, and woe me as I retired my chocobo as soon as I hit rank 40.
I have ALL the requirements to cover my chocobo, but I can't because its locked behind a quest I can now no longer obtain.
So I agree that it's completely pointless and stupid to hard lock features of the game behind quests.
That's not the case. WoW never locked any standard feature behind a quest that you HAD to do first.
For example the Glamour system or Dye system in FFXIV? You need to do a quest first.
The transmog system or the dungeon finder in WoW? You only need to reach the level requirement for each dungeon in WoW, and the transmog system can be used by literally anyone, without a quest thats unneeded.