I don't think I'm really concerned about originality vs. borrowing from previous games, so much as I am just doing things that are "good". Your mileage is obviously going to vary, but I'm personally not excited about stuff like chocobos wearing WHM outfits, or people riding ahrimans. I don't think either of those things look good, but clearly they are moving forward on them because they think a decent enough chunk of players would want those things (and probably disagree with me that they look hideous).

I'd rather they focus on really awesome stuff than pandering to folks that want to ride everything from buffalo to Van Darnus. Magitek armor mounts would obviously be cool. I'd even be excited to ride around in giant robot mandragora. But something about riding around on ahriman seems silly and eerily out of place. What's next, riding on goblin rockets or motorcycles? I fear vanity slots for similar reasons, but I can't get too worked up because so far in FF MMOs you always look hideously stupid when wearing optimal gear.

Bottom line, I don't care what they do as long as they do it awesome. Nearly anything could be great if done properly. If they just resort to a bunch of cheap pandering that doesn't come off well, I'd be much less interested.