I don't see how it's /that/ hard to conserve enough anima to handle the really long walks (like coerthas to limsa). Especially now that you can set your hp to anywhere that's useful. People who have anima problems mostly seem to have them because they use the anima pretty freely. Even on in zone stuff to get from uldah to horizon. Uldah to horizon is a pretty short walk though. If you have quickstride, or any of the gathering abilities that give you quick, it's even shorter. If you set your hp at horizon, it's a fairly short trip to both limsa and uldah, and you can teleport to gridania once a day without running out of anima.

I've saved a bunch of anima by sharing with people in my ls too. Need to get somewhere, I'll offer to take them first. They'll often do the same when they go somewhere. That helps out a decent amount, really.

That's not to say I think the system is great. We could absolutely use chocobos, and anima still runs out a little bit faster than I'd like. Especially when you find yourself having to go to far off zones that haven't been favorited. Once chocobos are around though, and we have some airships, I don't think people will really have anima problems at all.

The real issue imo is that those things are /still/ not around. Not that the anima system itself is terrible. It's only terrible on its own and, for some reason, has been left on its own for close to one year. That has been pretty horrible, but looks set to change soon enough.

I'm really trying to figure out what negative effect constant teleporting would have on anyone's game experience.
None, I suppose. None all that serious at least. The best answer I can think of is that when you have expansive prettily designed zones, but are just hopping from A to B instantly, you're missing a lot of the world. That said, I bet a majority of people could care less. Personally, I think it's kind of nice to have people using the zones to get from A to B. I just wish it could be done more quickly (ie: on a chocobo). I don't think instantly is needed, but 10-20 minute walks are a bit too much.

Only other reason I can think is that they wanted to use anima (combined with the lack of transport) as a way to slow people down. It obviously hasn't worked too well, given everyone with multiple fifty jobs, and is fairly annoying. But using my own "conserve anima" thing I do end up spending a bunch of time each day getting nothing of substance done. I guess that sounds like a bad thing, but I'm not upset about lengthened times a bit, since I would be bored at 50 I think (this is my second character remade after my first, who was fifty.... and I got bored then, hence why I have a new one now).