Rental chocobos are not the equal of personal chocobos. They originate from only 3 points on the map. Traveling from arbitrary point to another arbitrary point is a huge step up, even if we discount that rental chocobos cost money and aren't as fast.

Grand Companies seem to hand out crafting manuals in exchange for their precious seals. This puts some significant tarnish on their pure combat shine.

Making people do things in a game that they don't want to do is a bad thing. It makes people quit. Misery can be had for free. Forcing battle classes to rank a craft to fix their gear was bad. Forcing a crafter to fight so that they can access transit is also bad.