There are two serious issues that have been in place and utterly unaddressed since the game was released.

This is one of them! The other is the billing system, but that is off-topic and may be justified as deferred given the free-to-play status. This issue of Linkshell administration does not have such an excuse.

What is alarming is that this fundamental need does not even vaguely appear on the list of planned changes posted in the most recent letter from the director, found here:
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/threads/11012

How much more noise must be made?