Pay for your inventory.

[Callinon]

I don't want to pay either but there is a technical reason. Server side refresh / save ratios. What I mean is how often the serves save data. i don't think it's really a space issue on the servers as it is how many times per minute a save is made on the complete characters set of data. Just having more than one character which you can only log onto one a time btw, does not change this formula much. Having a character with large amount of storage to refresh does.

Is there some reason I'm not thinking of that would cause retainer inventories to be saved outside of when they're being edited?

Poor design isn't the players' fault and players should not be penalized for it so harshly.