Steam Changes not working as intended

[Rhomagus]

Directly from the announcement back in March:

[Important]Regarding FINAL FANTASY XIV Steam Version (Mar. 8) (Updated: Mar. 13 11:05 p.m. PDT)

As part of our fraud prevention measures, we plan to implement a restricted login check process for Steam service account users.

[Affected]
FINAL FANTASY XIV Steam Version

[Changes]
Current:
FINAL FANTASY XIV Steam version clients can currently be opened directly without going through the Steam application and is possible to use the regular Windows version client application for Steam version service accounts.

After the change:
For Steam version service accounts, the FINAL FANTASY XIV client application will need to be started up from the Steam application's Play button. Any other method of direct startup will no longer be available.

[Time and Date of Implementation]
Late March 2019 (tentative)

*Update Mar. 13, 2019 11:05 p.m. (PDT):
Due to a confirmed bug, implementation that was tentatively scheduled for late March will now be delayed until April or after. We will let you know as soon as a date is confirmed.

We thank you for your understanding and cooperation.

Steam users have already found a work around to launch the game outside of Steam by adding -issteam to the launcher properties.

Unfortunately, those who are locked into the Windows client and can't switch to Steam, or those that bought the Steam Version just to launch their Windows version through Steam cannot log in through Steam.

The intended target of this change is completely unaffected while the unintended target i.e. fans who gave SE money twice for the same product are locked out of functionality that they literally paid for.