Sorry, but this lip servicing towards Horizontal content is just that, lip servicing. It's not tenable for the majority of existing models.

Here's the problem. Vocal players say one thing, but the majority players trend towards another. The mouth does not know what the brain really wants or the body really needs. I'm all for more content options, but Horizontal progression does not keep well. FFXI had a very narrow interest base because of all the flaws that inherently come with horizontal progression. It hat a worse community because 'choice' was an illusion. Ignoring content could often leave you just as behind in the min-max game as Vertical progression, and force you to do the same content for much, much longer just try try to keep up with the inevitable power creep anyways.

So no, people can speak for themselves, but when they try to speak for the majority on this one, they're talking out their hind ends. Sorry, but the raw numbers win this one. This design was set in stone from the start.