3rd Party Program might as well be legalized

[Seraphor]

And therein is the contradiction and reason people consider it a grey area. When lead game designer's regularly-voiced views contradict the game's rules and TOS. I am not advocating for use of any modifications, and am kinda against them, even purely graphics-related ones. But even I recognize and see where the root of confusion starts and why community ultimately feels like its a grey area. Yoshi-P isn't just some guy on dev team, he's the face of FF14's development, to the point where people hear his every word as absolute gospel.

They don't contradict the games rules. Opinions are opinions, and rules are rules.

There is a difference between a moral argument, and a very matter of fact litigious system.
Rules are rules, and moral philosophising is not something you can nail down.

There may be some confusion from translations, and maybe there's a cultural issue too, where the west have a tendency to conflate morality (right and wrong) with law (legal and illegal). These are entirely different things.

[Heroman3003]

They don't contradict the games rules. Opinions are opinions, and rules are rules.

There is a difference between a moral argument, and a very matter of fact litigious system.
Rules are rules, and moral philosophising is not something you can nail down.

There may be some confusion from translations, and maybe there's a cultural issue too, where the west have a tendency to conflate morality (right and wrong) with law (legal and illegal). These are entirely different things.

As I said, I'm not arguing for whether its grey or not, far as I see its really not. But the perception of it being grey is very prevalent on both sides of the aisle and its important to recognize and see WHY its seen that way if solution to the community's divide on the issue is ever to be found, though that in itself is doubtful.