Unfortunately, while the FF14 team is really great and I think they are doing a fantastic job, Square Enix is an awful company. Look at the products they have put out over the past 10 years... FF13 had two sequels that no one wanted. FF15 was an unfinished disaster with loads of DLC that was required to understand wth was going on in the main story. FF7 remake is 15 hours of gameplay... and then there is the FF7 battle royal...

SE has been putting their focus on cash grabs for years now. I'm sure the FF14 team has no say in the addition of NFT and other micro transactions in the game. It all comes from above.