Criticism of Shadowbringers and the hostility there in

[linayar]

emmmm... no

Huh, guess it's only for complete edition? Because I know I got a 30 day free when I started.

That's not the point.

I don't think we're getting our money worth of content for what we're spending in subs, at all, especially if on top of that you add retainer and mobile app subs, without mentioning cash-shop-only cosmetics.
SE milks XIV while giving us back as little as they can afford and it's very much worth criticizing, not trying to rationalize.

If you have any reason to access the server, then pay the subscription for that month. Only you can decide whether it's worth that subscription fee. But if you don't, then you can just wait until it's at the end and try to do all the content in one month if you think that would make it worth the subscription fee.

For me, I play the game for story and battle content, and that hasn't changed with the various expansions. I still get dungeons, trials, raids, and alliance raids, all of which add to my growing collection of potential results in the various roulettes, and I get the various story quests that accompany these contents. And they're all released at a nice, predictable pace. That means, I always have a reason to log in every month, even every week if not every day, even with no house, and that means the subscription fee is worth it.

Thus, the subscription fee is there for you to decide if there is something you want to do in the game for that month. It's not tied to what content is released because that's on their end with their own schedule. Alliance raid, for example, will still be in .1, .3, and.5 whether or not you subscribe throughout the expansion or only for parts of it.