Why isn’t the third party software ban enforced?

[Halivel]

It is cheating, you aren't wrong here.
However, Yoshida specifically stated that they don't want to check our PCs for this stuff. He did also mention laws. Don't forget that Square Enix is a Japanese company located in Japan, so their legal conditions are different, we don't know the full picture as we aren't their lawyers. This quote is taken from LL translation from Reddit discord, dated by 2020, February 6th, when Yoshida talked about implementation of changes to Way Markers system.

"We cannot do anything, if people have a little window on their screen showing ACT. We don't want to "scan" your computer for the software you have installed, that's against the law anyway. There are additional plugins for ACT that influence game play a lot, this is breaking game balance and is target of more severe penalties"
"For example, during the world first race for Alex ultimate, there was a tool used to instantly replace waymarks during the fight, i am sure some of you have seen that"
"That was the first time I learned a tool like that exists"
"Players can replace waymarks on their own during the fight of course, but having a tool place them instantly sending the command to the server through the game is wrong. Please don't do this. We have taken actions on our side to prevent this from happening again, I will show you a bit on the machine later"
"There have been clips going around of a tool showing where an untargeted aoe will hit, if we catch you doing this, this will have a heavy penalty"

That said, if you encounter people who use this stuff and can prove it - you have full right to report them.

[SecretIsland]

I wouldn't be surprised if some people on the development team also used the third party plugin.

[Penthea]

I wouldn't be surprised if some people on the development team also used the third party plugin.

I wouldn't be surprised if their contract says that breaking the ToS of the game would make them lose their job. I know people who work for Blizzard as GMs and even though they're not devs there are some very strict rules they have to follow relating to their conduct while playing the game in their spare time. They are held to a higher standard than ordinary players. It would be the same for the devs.

However when the devs are doing their work they absolutely do have a parser in their dev kits. They do need to know what numbers classes are doing to be able to balance them. And they have something similar to fflogs that they use internally to see how classes are performing across the playerbase.

[_Koneko_]

i would not be surprised one day mass bans happen and a lot of people who flaunt their tos violation would be banned forever

[Laerune]

If SE is not going to enforce it, then why not make it official so everyone can take advantage of these addons.

Either enforce or let people use them and not punish them if they are caught.

[Caitsithhh]

I learned today that people can install plugins for third party software that give them VISUAL and AUDIO notifications for things like Dots and spell cooldowns, and what the boss is going to cast next, making their rotations exceedingly easier to keep up during busier fights. Why is this not considered cheating? This puts me, a console player, and any PC player who refuses to break the rules, at a SEVERE disadvantage. Why isn’t this considered cheating and/or botting? It literally screams in your ears what to press next for your rotation and where/when to move. That’s cheating...or maybe I’m missing something?

Pretty sure week one of new content offers none of these things thus your argument is invalid

[Caitsithhh]

Pretty sure week one of new content offers none of these things thus your argument is invalid

Anything past week one isn’t hard. Minus ult ofc

[sparroww]

for the boss triggers usually for new encounter it takes like weeks to get it done, to get the boss mechs and all soo by then everyone who progs are usually just done by then. for the visual and audio notification well thats just weird idk who uses that. but for new bosses no one gets advantage or disadvantage or anything everyone is dying till clear. SE can ban if you use it to talk trash about someone dps thou.

[Jin-]

Is it similar cheat mod like DBM in WoW?

[Caurcas]

ACT isn't a cheat program, as it just reads and compiles data. Triggers aren't cheats either, just lazy. Other programs exist, but they are not common or widely used.