SE may think that it's a sign of the problems with FFXIV that a lot of people would rather pretend to play (or pretend to play certain aspects of the game like FSH) than actually be in their seat. Maybe, they hope, after many of the problems that people perceive and whine about in the game are fixed, people will stop cheating and botting and players will actually play and the towns will become alive with more than the sound of 24 hour crafting noise.

However, cheaters will cheat no matter how the game is made and no matter how many people like it. It doesn't matter if it's free or pay to play. The truth is allowing botters to exist encourages otherwise honest players to bot and THAT'S what the real harm is. I hope SE is keeping track of botters and will dispose of them once they feel comfortable and they don't feel like they need to prop up their server statistics. I also hope that honest players will get to test out open PVP on obvious botters. I'd live to nail a naked fisher/alchemist hidden in a Coerthas cave with my Lominsan Bhuj.