Quote Originally Posted by Kosmos992k View Post
No, the content added in patches is considered part of the service offering. Yes it means that if you join at 3.5 having bought HW, you have access to everything from 3.0 through 3.5. that's a consequence of having a linear story and also needing to maintain the same client version with all players. The price of the HW game covers 3.0, the subscription grants access to the servers which includes all content upgrades. The content in the patches is not priced separately, nor rolled into the original purchase.
Sorry but your logic doesn't seem right, you're saying that not subbing means you get free content if you play at the end of the expansion, you're also saying that FFXIV gets less content per expansion than any other MMO, I have to disagree with that. For me buying an expansion equals to paying for all content, while sub allows you to access the servers, hence why sub is time based and no content based, while the expansion is content based and not time based.