I'm randomly complaining

[Alahra]

You can make a copy of your ffxiv setting folder that is in my documents and my games and copy it over to your new install without needing to use their back up tool at all.

That's actually what I was referring to, yes. You can settings over that way. But to do that with your hotbars and gearsets isn't very user friendly because the game doesn't do anything to identify which character file is which—they're identified by a string of numbers, and if you have multiple characters, it can take a bit of sleuthing to figure out which is which.

Perhaps not the perfect response to the context your response was in, but it was a suggestion of a compromise of the two.

Compromise is fine. It was their flippant tone ("What am I reading?") that I took issue with. There was no need for that.