I am in first line for this. We need chocobos actively present in the world and stating a reason for it would be insulting to their awesomeness. We need to use them. We need to say "Hey, i'm on the chocobo already, will be there soon!" or "It's far. Let's use a chocobo!"

Not having chocobos is game-breaking, deal-breaking, heart-wrenching. This won't be anything more than a bad alpha until they are implemented properly. (i know it's silly, but that's how i feel about it)

Raising chocobos: a tedious system to plan and implement, would bet we wont see it before an year from now.

I want it.

Mounted chocobo combat: unless it's already in the works, we won't see it for a very long time as well, it's probably quite tricky to implement.

I really want it.