The cash shop isn't purely cosmetic. Extra retainers aren't vanity, jump potions aren't vanity.

To the people saying stuff wouldn't exist, with maybe a couple of exceptions I think it would, most of it was created for events or is made of reused or recoloured assets.

SE never said the sub wouldn't cover essential server upgrades, they said that the cash shop funds can be used to pay for them. I don't for one second believe that our subs aren't enough to cover everything, I can however easily believe that money won't be allocated to FFXIV until certain MogStation milestones are cleared though.