Riding maps are not available at release of any expansion and require grinding to get them, him promoting it is predatory as it could just be in game, They could LITERALLY just make our company chocobos faster naturally.

Also saying it's not mandatory, thats like saying, oh there gambling in the game but it's not mandatory, theres a reason the EU is going through hell to get this shit removed from all game lmfao. You're expecting people in XIV to have self control, when they can't even control themselves to not attack the devs over new races? Sad to say it but this does all fall into the companies lap. They are preying on people. Just because you don't like it doesn't mean it's not true.

And this isn;t the first time SE has preyed on it's consumers, Looks at all of their gatcha games.

Another Example, DE, Makers of Warframe where you could literally pull a crank for 1 dollar and reskin your Kubrow, people would pull the crank and spend MASSIve amounts of money. Tey removed it the same week. Was it peoples choice to do something for a cosmetic? Yes. But it was predatory.