All this talk about story being "oh so important" and neccessary for XIV is laughable. How much does Yoshida value the integrity of that story? 21.75€. That's it.

You know, if the story was really the only reason why the game exists and was entirely driven by it you wouldn't already be allowed to skip it for ~1.8 months worth of subscription. This is a simple business tool based on an estimate of how long you would normally take to complete MSQ. A "you can either subscribe and play for X amount of time working through some content we've released before and still want a return on investment on or just drop us a lump sum ahead and be free". Pretty standard practice these days and not like it's a big deal... but at least don't try to cover it with "MuH sToRy" bull.