i wish to add some stuff that some people miss, most subs game that did get a cash shop that begin to get a lot of vanity item did end in free to play. the point is a lot of player did come in FF14 because it was a subs game and was wanting to avoid the cash shop stuff that most of the mmorpg are plagued with.

you have tons of free to play out, why make one of the few last mmorpg subs go down this way?
because the cash shop is not needed actually for get tons of cash from the game. no it's clearly a greedy move and nothing that you say can go against this sole fact.
with 2.000.000 subs per month (even with only legacy player at 9.99 euro) they get 19.980.000 euro (more of 24.700.000 USD) and it's only with the lowest subs actual, most people are not at this one and with the retainer subs it far more. do you really believe they use 24.7M USD per month in the game? really?

indeed they need cash and them goal is to get cash, that true. however, the question of: do they do the game for money or money for make game?
but please show me what i miss, because, actually they are getting tons of cash and the silly escuse of: "the cash shop is for get more content in the game" look bad... even for a kid.