For the OP:

Twitch is not the FFXIV community.

A better question: did Asmongold actually pay for a subscription or was he doing what pretty much every other twitch streamer did at the time: play the game via the Free Trial?

Another question: did Asmongold's Twitch runs in FFXIV result in actual subscriptions, or were they players who wanted to be with their idol via the Free Trial?

A third question: Did the OP actually sit through the FFXIV Twitch streams of Asmongold? Personally, I'd rather be playing the actual game rather than watching somebody I don't know from Adam play a game.