I think it is important to allow players at the very least a one time free chance to switch anything about their character's creation process (while retaining all progress & character data) when the new FFXIV v.2 starts. I don't really care how they want to explain any race/gender changes - I would not even care if there is no explanation. Adding the missing genders is a huge change and far too many players chose their second choice when initially creating a character.

Anything about the appearance of your character, to include race, gender, birthday, patron god, and physical attributes should be part of the one time switch. If SE wants to approve future additional changes, I am ok with that.

Changing the starting nation/grand company should be available anyway as an in game option at any time once the player has fulfilled certain requirements (perhaps completion of a certain number of quests for the starter city or Grand Company.) Players should be able to access all parts of every storyline in the game if they desire to - but it should not be something you can just do instantly or every day.