The whale mount is up on Mogstation

[Theodric]

The entire "burger" is half done in this case, and the few "toppings" we receive aren't very good.

That's completely subjective.

This game's cash shop puts some f2p ones to shame.

Such as...?

Last I checked, the vast majority of F2P MMO's were seeking to squeeze as much money as possible out of their players through business practices more nefarious than those that FFXIV embraces.

There's a big difference when another fast food chain is selling a similar burger for 6$ with a choice of 4 toppings.

Other subscription MMO's like WoW include mobile app, inventory space, alts and far smaller cash shop free with the basic sub. FF's cash shop is far from the death of the game, I enjoy ff14, but it's still rather excessive.

I may be mistaking you for another poster, yet didn't you recently claim to have felt tempted to go back and embrace WoW only to find it lacking? If so, it's probably not the best comparison to make. Especially when it ignores the nuances of WoW's cash shop being far more expensive on average than FFXIV's equivalent.