You see, this is full of ad hominems. You're attacking me instead of the argument.
You're insinuating that I have a secret agenda to pay less for 2.0. You're insinuating that because I didn't mention SE's profit motive in every single sentence I must not be sincere about that motive. You're suggesting that I don't have a proper case because I used a catch phrase you didn't particularly care for, even though most people understand the meaning of "fully operational" when compared to what we actually got at FFXIV's launch.
Maybe you should just stop. Just stop.
Questioning the validity of the BG poll is okay, so I'll answer that one. I'll leave it to you to find out how the number of words I used proves I'm in a satanic cult trying to send everyone to hell.
Who would you expect the most rabid fans of Final Fantasy XIV?
Would they be fans of Final Fantasy series? Seems pretty likely. If I were to tell you that one of those Final Fantasy titles were online, the eleventh one, known as FFXI, wouldn't you say those players would be even more stoked to play the next online title in the series: FFXIV?
What if a particular segment enjoyed playing FFXI so much that they wanted to take the game to the next level. So they created mods, at somewhat great risk of getting in trouble, and distributed their creations free to the community at large to improve their experience playing the game. Wouldn't you say that a group of people who loved the original Final Fantasy Online game that much ought to be ecstatic over a brand new sequel?
And yet this particular group who ought to be rabid fans are overwhelmingly passing on FFXIV. This isn't just one poll. This is a poll of a very specialized group of hardcore FFXI players above and beyond your run-of-the-mill FFXI player. They don't think FFXIV is worth it in its current form. That ought to be troubling news.
If even they don't like FFXIV that much, and they have every motivation to blindly love it, then what do you suppose the average FFXI player, who doesn't tinker under FFXI's hood is going to think of FFXIV? And don't even get me started on anyone who has never played Final Fantasy Online before...