For those unsubbing

[Greven]

Nobody is really quitting for genderlock. No money for you, sorry.

Only those that would quit anyway or those for whom this was the final straw. Most of the others are just temporary unsubbing, delaying the preorder or not preordering. It's more like a strike, workers take an action that is supposed to be noticed but they don't drop the job.

For those saying that unsubbing people would be replaced: Nope. Let's make a very simplified example, let's take the natural cycle of FFXIV is very month 10 people leave and 10 join. This month 50 people leave, 10 join. On big number those those 40 will be felt.

[Valdegarde]

Only those that would quit anyway or those for whom this was the final straw.

Yep, you nailed it. It's alarming how many "final straws" are popping up and it's just tiring to me, I don't have a desire to play or look forward to anything right now. For me the final straw was most definitely Blue Mage, but nothing after has really helped.
For others, the final straw will be those that wanted to experience the expansion as a new race, that didn't want to see the relic weapons in Eureka again, the story being underwhelming leading into Shadowbringers, the lack of a 4th healer to use...you name it, and there's probably more to come.
People who are protesting still care and want to see change, the ones you have to worry about are those who have had their interest completely killed.

[Reiryuu]

Only those that would quit anyway or those for whom this was the final straw. Most of the others are just temporary unsubbing, delaying the preorder or not preordering. It's more like a strike, workers take an action that is supposed to be noticed but they don't drop the job.

For those saying that unsubbing people would be replaced: Nope. Let's make a very simplified example, let's take the natural cycle of FFXIV is very month 10 people leave and 10 join. This month 50 people leave, 10 join. On big number those those 40 will be felt.

Pretty much this. I'm unsubbing till May pretty much because I don't really want to play at the moment, so why pay for something I'm not using? That's just wasting money. But to be fair, when you do unsub you're asked to give a reason for your unsub... and then given a choice of radial button options to press and none of them really give any actual feedback on why you're really leaving. Thus, if you really want to provide feedback as to why you are unsubbing, this is pretty much the best place for it.

I'll re-evaluate my decision in May if I like what I hear from the live letter and decide I feel like playing the expansion. Or perhaps taking a break is what I need to do to feel up to getting and playing the expansion again. I won't lie, I am pretty disappointed with the news I've heard so far. But I'm keeping tabs in case SE can show that my fears and pessimism are wrong or does something that will allow me to overlook them a bit. SE has let me down quite a few times over the past few years, I've learned to keep my expectations fairly low, but am always willing to be happily surprised.