Quote Originally Posted by Larirawiel View Post
This is not necessarily the case. If the game would have an official addon API then the devs would have the full control what is allowed and what is not. The situation in World of Warcraft is a special one. The addon API is very huge and the addons have access to literary everything. But there also other MMOs with addons. And in those MMOs the situation does not get out of hand.
This still relies on Square Enix taking a stance on what tools are acceptable and those that aren't. At the end of the day, the vast majority of third party tools in the entire toolset are never going to be deemed acceptable so an official plugin framework would still results in a lot of lost functionality for many users.

Not to mention that a lot of the problem also relies on the fact Square Enix seemingly have very few if any client-side mechanisms to detect or prevent the use of these tools. An official plugin framework doesn't really solve the wider problem in this discussion as the existing tools would continue to work.

This entire discussion on third party tools is a useless loop of people getting upset at those using it and people getting upset at the prospect of them going away. Until Square Enix just come out and say they're adding a kernel level anti-cheat like Riot Vanguard (used in Valorant and League of Legends) or something of that nature, the situation will never change and you'll be able to keep using these plugins without Square Enix knowing about it.