As a subscriber paying over $100 a year for this game, I expect a certain level of service to be offered.

Basic storage would be one of those items. I do not buy the argument that it is 'too hard' to offer more storage, included, in the game in any form. It cannot be true that the only possible way to have more storage is to buy more retainers.

It seems that since they've gotten hold of a nice extra source of income, they are loathe to let go of it.

This just really bothers me. We had 200 inv slots in 1.0 and more on retainers. FFXI steadily increased storage in a number of ways without issue.

What is the problem? This and lack of additional housing are among my top complaints. SE really has dropped the ball here, without any clear or intelligible explanation.