MSQ

[Enla]

-snip-

No, but SE does and they're not going to tell us anything about it. Primarily because revealing numbers like that isn't a good business move regardless of which way they swing. With that said however if it was truly as monumental a problem as you're making it out to be SE would have changed their formula by now. MSQ being baked into the game's identity or not they're a business. They aren't going to let themselves hemorraghe money in the way you seem to think they are with player retention if they can help it. This is the same company that called the original release of the Tomb Raider remake a 'disappointment' because it /only/ sold four million copies in a three month time-frame instead of the ten they desired. A number which, at the time, only CoD and FIFA were pulling in. If nothing else I can assure you that if they were losing subscribers at the rate you seem to be suggesting that they'd be working their asses off to fix it. Especially given how the original FF14 nearly killed their company /AGAIN/.

Also again, the way the story is written there is no way to make things be put behind 'side quests'. Like, at all. It'd be like taking A Song of Ice and Fire, cutting six chapters out at random, and then telling you to buy supplementary material in order to understand it all. The way the very story is structured would have to change entirely to do what you're requesting. Which absolutely is way more effort AND money than SE would be willing to put in. Especially when the skip potions exist and seem to be selling just fine.