Pay for your inventory.

[Cynfael]

The second I saw this in the patch notes, I just knew I'd find at least one thread already complaining about it.

If you want to keep extra crap, you pay a pittance extra. People are quick to break out the torches and pitchforks whenever SE reveals that they might actually be a business and looking to increase profits.

I have 4 total retainers right now. Could I make do with 2? Sure. I keep a ridiculous amount of crap I don't actually need and haven't touched in months. On the other hand, do I mind paying the cost of one large iced coffee per month for the additional 2 retainers? Not really. It's a tiny amount of money for me, but if enough players utilize the service, it's a significant increase in revenue for SE. If I no longer feel like storing all this junk, I'll stop the optional service. It's not a big deal.

Edit: As for ventures and item selling slots, I don't see that as a huge deal; I don't know anyone who has gotten rich exclusively off of retainer ventures (a few mil isn't much), and feeding tokens to all those retainers would be a lot of work unless you farm dungeons all day for items.