What is the point of mount drops...

[Saefinn]

They look neat and are useful to have because they get you from A-to-B faster than walking or running. When you're doing something that involves a lot of A-to-B it's really convenient and of course flying mounts can get to certain areas more easily as well as some nice areas inaccessible by foot, even if in most cases those places are just to look at and in some, used in quests.

I feel the true test to see if there is a point to mounts is simply remove your mount from any crossbar or hotbar and you'll likely soon learn why they're useful.

Do they get as much mileage as they do in other games? Maybe not, I don't think it prides itself as a big open world game, like say, TESO and I don't think it needs to be, not every game would merit on a big open world approach where mounts get a lot more mileage. Would it be nice? Perhaps in some places, I feel like somewhere like the steppes might feel like a big open expanse like the Mongolian steppes its based on, the Azim steppes are just a small area of the whole steppe. And I wouldn't mind feeling like I could get lost in by heading even deeper into the shroud. But sometimes, that can be a detriment, eg. FFXI is a game that benefits heavily from mount use because of its long distances to travel between anywhere you can teleport to, but it actually meant it could take ages from getting from point 'a' to point 'b', whilst it could add the feel of a big expansive world and can be immersive, but once that wears off because you've been in that particular place a lot and your group is waiting for you, suddenly fast travel options seem so much more attractive. So much so that FFXI has gotten better for it over the years and nowadays has a much more vast network of fast travel options available so you can get where you need to more quickly.

But as your question was "what is the point?" and I'd expect the point would be plain to see. So it comes off as a pretty loaded question.