YoshiP stated that MMOs are trending toward F2P

[Bishop81]

You mean the same tactic every successful P2P MMO has used?

Kind of my point isn't it.

Difference between F2P and P2P games.
P2P games = all are equal.
F2P games = those who pay will always be infront of you, no matter how much time you spend in game.
Also much more developers time go into creating cash shop content instead of valuable ingame content.

There are a few exceptions, but these games are usually mobas and stuff, not huge MMOs.

Sorry but I don't play games to grind for 1000 hours to be somehow close to wallet warriors.
If FFXIV ever goes F2P, I am gone and I am taking my friends with me.
If that happened you really couldn't expect the same patches pace as now, or maybe yes, but half of the patches would go into cash shop.

All are equal? Those with the time to grind up their gear, crafting, and gathering are equal to those that don't?

You pay for it. You pay for it with "time" in a sub MMO - hey, they charge by the month; so not only are you losing RL money to the sub, you are losing RL time.

Developers like YoshiP and Blizzard attempt to ease this somewhat by "resetting" gear every patch and expansion, so you can "catch up" easily. However it also devalues the effort you put in - it will just be obsolete in a few months anyway, why bother?