hold on here, sorry to point it out but the free trial you seem to think is months long was never stated to be months long.
You do know they did reinstate the free trial 30 day period for anyone with an active account from sept 29-nov1 2012(end save date)? They may have put this here to fulfill what they said who knows. Notice how that's the time period on your roadmap you posted free trial would start oct-nov and end after ARR release with no set amount of time after.
I do agree yes it would be a good idea to have a period for those skeptical returning, but as for specifics on how long a free trial would be it's not said anywhere it would be 3 months. You just assumed that based on it saying it would give a free trial in oct-nov and billing would resume sometime after release which they estimated at Jan back then.
"In order to play the current FINAL FANTASY XIV for free until the end of service, please read the details below according to the situation that applies to you."
http://lodestone.finalfantasyxiv.com...e57e858ee82098
Also it doesn't say anything about game will be down for 9 months or that beta 4 would save progress made. There are lots of things not in that original roadmap which the dates of release are off by like 7-8 months and which the free trial resumes was given at the exact time they said it would oddly enough.