Feeling punished for having alts...

[dinnertime]

No, the point being made was that just because you want something doesnt mean it doesnt have detrimental effects. Using alts for bank space and what not is just an example of what that means.

It's not detrimental. It's actually a reasonable and free way to get more storage. "Bank alts" aren't an exploit and there's nothing that prevents it. Extra retainers are also an optional service and they're not actively trying to prevent or discipline players from using alts as extra storage either just because it might affect their revenue there. Again, if they want to prevent these things from happening, they have ways to do so by making items untradeable to your own characters. The theories you've quoted are just theories and I doubt they'll do it unless you keep giving them more ideas to be stingy about the storage/inventory problem.

The only reason I've heard of as to why they don't allow friending your own characters (which is actually not the case. You're just not able to add offline players) is because of RMT. I don't even know if that's actually the statement they gave though. Still, that statement is really flimsy when there are workarounds to it and the 'problem' still persist, only because they wouldn't go for the actual root of the issue. There's really no point in keeping it up anymore and it's a stupid restriction in the first place.

Might have more to do with spam/harassment filtering. A lot of the systems are intermingled specifically to prevent certain actions from the player side. So to add a friend, they have to be online, and to mail someone, they have to be a friend. So Youre not gonna get random mail for harassers or spammers, or tons of 'friend' invites every time you log in from Gold spammers looking to advertise. Or from people you dont know or dont like. Is it perfect? No not really. Is it complete trash? No not really either. It's just a heavy handed filter.

Friend invites being spammed is something I've never witnessed in this game, and that is something gold spammers can already do whenever they wish. If that's really a problem, there should be settings to allow only certain people (mutuals from FCs, LS's or your own party/alliance, or mutual friends) to add you or have it disabled entirely, and only being able to add someone as a friend once at for a certain time, while having the option to add people who are offline available.