You can't "lock" something that doesn't exist.

[Alucard135]

It is unlikely theyll rush it for any other reason. I think the people in the middle on both sides accept this as being the case.

Exactly that! But god forbid we say that to some people lol.

Locking things that don't exist is possible and does happen. First example pops to mind is Overwatch's Twitch has "locked" emotes that haven't even been revealed (or probably even created) yet as rewards.

You know it's one thing that the reward hasn't been revealed yet, which means it existed. But saying it was not even created, that's where it starts to sound off. So they locked players from accessing a file that isn't in the game yet? Furthermore, if you're going to say "they planned that but didn't implement it" that's another thing, since you already knew they planned it. But you can't say you're locked from a non existent thing that you had no idea it was even planned.

Let me give you a better example of how you can get locked from something. The Regalia mount. People already data-mined it (even how to obtain it) and there are even videos on how it looks like when you're using it and flying with it. But we're locked from using it. (There's another example regarding schoolboy and schoolgirl but I'll not spoil it).

To debate the terminology, logistics, and ethics of it is just a derailing tactic to try and squash the interest a lot of players have in playing male viera and female hrothgar.

Here we go again. Assuming that the intent of this entire thread is to try and squash the interest of players for something they wanted, even though there is no mention of such thing in the OP regarding that. You know you can just avoid this entire discussion by just saying "please add male Viera and female Hrothgar". Do you think you will not get them if people were to say that? Or do you think if people didn't use the term gender lock they will not get what they want?