I want to swim

[Naunet]

most likely the latter since they would have to...

Only the very first thing in this massive stream of non-punctuated text is necessary: "make swimming animations". I suppose "ability to move in a 3d space" is appropriate as well, though the controls themselves are very basic and swimming is really not some wild and crazy innovation in MMOs. People know how to do it.

We don't need gear effects on swimming distance, or new enemies, or new attacks and animations, or new FATES, or any adjustments to fishing, or specific gear, or specific quests. We already have swimsuits, but those shouldn't be necessary to swim.

I'm slightly disappointed on a daily basis that I can't jump off the Aftcastle into the water.

Seriously. Or wade into a river. Or go exploring that marsh around the Sanctum of the Twelve. Or swim off the coast of Costa del Sol. Or jump off the Burning Wall. Or any number of other fun things. Fun is too much effort, apparently.

News flash this isn't an open-world game, everything is split into zones and instances much like GW2 and SWTOR, games that aren't on consoles

SWTOR (PC Master Race Only) you also couldn't swim.

You can swim in GW2, though. Your correlation doesn't exactly hold up.