Third-party Tools Can Negatively Affect Players Not Using Them

[Absurdity]

Subscribers are not the primary generator

Cash shops and mobile investments are how these companies make their money

Don’t think for a second that sub count comes close to these income methods

For XIV I think subs are still a sizeable amount of income, even if not it is at least a stable and predictable amount of regular cash flow.
The cash shop is probably a lot more volatile, sure you have whales that just buy anything you serve them but most people aren't buying all the junk they sometimes throw on the shop...like consumable housing items for 5 bucks.

So the income from the cash shop can swing wildly depending on whether or not they put something popular on the store this month.