We don't need anymore gil sinks

[Izscha]

So it's entirely possible to amass a vast fortune in XIV if you're a raider and never bother doing any of the content that requires gil. The gil sinks are for people like him. (He's rocking the gold namazu mount now, so maybe he did drop below 400 mil after that.)

Actually on the raiding part, it may be the thing that do cost the most in the entire game, if you ever want to day 1 stuff you'll buy the crafter gear + pentameld at an enormous price each single time.
And that's why for a long time we got top fc / roster being in bots dramas over it, if you compete to world first you need those asap no matter the price so obviously ppl make it expensive.
The pentameld part must be the most pricey thing in the game early on.
If you're doing it week 10 and already got a bunch of tomestone stuff sure it will be useless to you, only talking day 1 stuff there.
And that's how you make hundreds of millions in one day as a crafter if you got contacts.