I agree that the cash shop is a bit of an insult on top of a monthly subscription fee. There is a lot about it I disagree with and pretty much hate. 24 bucks for Odins mount? How about instead of just getting your name under Odin's for getting the killing blow, you earn that mount in game for getting the killing blow. Why not make all the metallic paint obtainable from retainer ventures? What SE has done is created an additional pay wall to a game we already pay a monthly fee to participate in. The only part of the cash shop that I think is alright is getting last years seasonal stuff. I dislike that I missed out on the ghost costume from last years halloween event, but if I missed it enough to spend 5 bucks on it, I have the option. I was on my honeymoon during whatever reason there was to release the Huzzah emote, so I missed that. I'd throw 50 cents at SE to have access to that.

What worries me is that my wife played another SE game called Wakfu. They introduced a cash shop on top of a monthly fee with the same premise as FFXIV's shop - that it only sells frills. Well, she said it ended up selling gear and shortcuts and ultimately killed the game. I never played, and the game looked like something from the Super Nintendo days so I was fairly surprised to hear it had a subscription cost at all, but a cash shop on top of it sounded like SE trying to get all the cash they can from a sinking ship.