This is just appalling

[Lycieus]

It really isn't. SE give sub payers what they pay for. Sub payers aren't paying for the development of Cash shop items. Now if what we got in Patch cycles was falling short but the Cash shop was thriving then there would be a problem.

DLC are only a ripe off if the original product is not value for money.

Where do you suppose the finances and resources necessary to create a cash shop came from in the first place? The artists and developers creating these items and the systems to support them had to be members of the XIV team or had to be trained to work with existing systems. This cost time and money that could have otherwise gone into producing an equivalent number of items in the game.