No denial on my part that they can get expensive. I am quite sure for some players, the average weekly costs for ports can get upwards towards six figures.

How much a player ports and how much it costs them is not really where I am going with this though. Each player needs to develop their own equilibrium with the game's economy, and it is entirely on each individual player to do so.

Porting for things like hunts/quests/collectibles are almost always negated by the gil reward. The game also has so many ways to reduce port costs. You should also be thankful because I believe the costs of ports are calculated by a percentage, which means if they weren't capped at 999, we would easily be paying more for trips from west to east and vice versa.

I also recommend not being in such a rush. Take the long route once in a while to save yourself some gil. Just like how continuously porting adds up, so does saving gil by not using it.