At this point will FFXIV collapse if all mods and third party tools disappear?

[WickedSensei]

I've been playing since 1.0 and I've never used a single mod, not even a macro.

I don't do discord either. I've capped all battle jobs and can pretty much figure out the rotations reading tooltips and some hours practice on a dummy.

I've never really been into cosmetic add-ons either as the game looks fine as is to me, although looking forward to the graphics update.

However I don't do savage or higher level content but I think most players of the game are in my space of "casual to mid-core" gamers.

So I really think the game will do just fine without all the extras mentioned in the OP.

Only maybe the hardcore gamers would suffer without....but then again if hardcore gamers are always looking for "add-ons" to make the game easier are they really "hardcore" ?

[MintnHoney]

if hardcore gamers are always looking for "add-ons" to make the game easier are they really "hardcore" ?

I would say that it's because they're so hardcore that they end up looking for add-ons that make things more comfortable for them.
A true casual wouldn't give a damn, because what do they care if they can't see or do something that they should probably see? They'll hopefully do or see it anyway, eventually.