I did not buy FFXIV through Steam by choice. The SE website kept erroring out on every credit card I tried (three), so I had to go through Steam just so I could pay and play.

Customers stuck on Steam are clearly second-class citizen. We cannot buy the expansion (yet). We have no idea if we'll actually get early access. We will never be able to buy the physical CE.

I would happily pay a good deal of money to get off Steam. I'd buy a new game + expansion + pay an extra fee if I could get off it. Why is this not an option? Why are we not treated like other FFXIV players?