1. As has been stated already, this is the bare bones of the Chocobo system. There's a lot more to come, and more than likely a lot more to occupy your time.

2. Surprised I haven't seen anyone mention how weak FFXIV rentals are compared to FFXI rentals.
FFXI rentals were both A. Fast, and B. On 30 minute timers.

FFXIV rentals appear to be rather slow (judging by how fast terrain moves by, it seems like they're a lot slower than FFXI's rentals, but I could be mistaken. No way to really know for sure.) and they only last ten minutes.

I think it's a fair trade to have the rentals a bit easier, seeing as 10 minutes is barely anything as far as travel time is concerned.