Unlimited Sprint outside of Combat or Combat Zones.

[Sandpark]

Player A: Walking around towns with no teleports is not fun.
Player B: We can sprint.
Devs: You have sprint.
Player A: But It only last a few seconds..
Devs: OK we will add aetheryte crystals.

Player A: Walking in outdoors is no fun.
Player B: We can sprint.
Devs: You have sprint.
Player A: But It only last a few seconds..
Devs: OK we will add aetheryte crystals and mounts.

Player A: We love the teleports and mounts but the mounts are too slow.
Player B: My mount speed is just fine.
Devs: Ok we will make the mounts faster.
Player A: Wow, this is awesome.
Player B: Wow, this is awesome, I don't know why I was happy before.

Player A: We love the teleports and mounts, the mounts are so fast.
Player B: Yeah, thanks for that devs.
Devs: /smiles

Player A: We love the atmosphere but feel a better sprint would make interactions more smooth and fun.
Player B: Why do you want a faster longer lasting sprint? You can't enjoy the scenery if you move too fast.
Player A: I still enjoy the scenery when I want, but when I don't want to that is what teleports are for.
Devs: /listens to both feedbacks.

What happens next?

[Felis]

The young kids today.
Back in the old days, during the first half year of 1.x, there was no sprint, no city aetherites and no mounts. Not even airship.
Have to deliver a finished crafting leve to camp Bluefog? You have to run those 15 minutes on food and hope that you don't pull aggro short at the goal. And we did it every day.
Yes, that were nice old days ^^

[Mysticdraggon]

Player A: Walking around towns with no teleports is not fun.
Player B: We can sprint.
Devs: You have sprint.
Player A: But It only last a few seconds..
Devs: OK we will add aetheryte crystals.

Player A: Walking in outdoors is no fun.
Player B: We can sprint.
Devs: You have sprint.
Player A: But It only last a few seconds..
Devs: OK we will add aetheryte crystals and mounts.

Player A: We love the teleports and mounts but the mounts are too slow.
Player B: My mount speed is just fine.
Devs: Ok we will make the mounts faster.
Player A: Wow, this is awesome.
Player B: Wow, this is awesome, I don't know why I was happy before.

Player A: We love the teleports and mounts, the mounts are so fast.
Player B: Yeah, thanks for that devs.
Devs: /smiles

Player A: We love the atmosphere but feel a better sprint would make interactions more smooth and fun.
Player B: Why do you want a faster longer lasting sprint? You can't enjoy the scenery if you move too fast.
Player A: I still enjoy the scenery when I want, but when I don't want to that is what teleports are for.
Devs: /listens to both feedbacks.

What happens next?

that is mostly what it boils down to with every conversation discussing movement in general. some people do not like these QoL changes at first, but i dont think they have a legitimate reason to care in the first place so they will like it anyway.

the difference now is that sprint's recent changes, while extremely useful as a combat ability, negatively affected the pace and flow of the free open world. while yes we can use mounts, there are still scenarios where it would be less clunky to simply use sprint to get to your destination.

this is why i want sprint to only be limited within combat, because i see absolutely no reason why it should be limited outside of combat in the free open world.