For right now, there is not much reason to bring in airships until they release more areas that would warrant an airship. However, developers have always said that we need to use our Anima wisely. People use Anima for the following reasons.

1. Laziness
2. Area is surrounded by high level enemies.
3. Need to get to a party or NM quickly.

I am sure there are more reasons, but these are pretty much the top ones. I would say the average player uses about near 30 anima a week. I know I do.....

Now here is where chocobos come into play. Having the ability to mount would make it more of a reason to not use anima, and would help prevent having to use it for the three reasons I said above. Having your own mount influences you to see what is going on around you.

One thing I do ask is that SE not make the concept of the Chocobo more complicated than it needs to be. Make it like other MMO's and have the ability to summon your chocobo at will on the field, but at the expense of still having enemy encounter to balance it out.

I would welcome back Chocobo Breeding/Racing/Hot & Cold again, these were fun when you did it on FFXI, and sure it would be just as fun on FFXIV. However, with that though, I would not make it so it affects your normal mounting privlages like it did in FFXI. I loved my chocobo, but I was meh when I found out I had to breed and raise him to make him worthwhile. The concept should be completely separate. So basically what I am saying is, keep normal field mounting and mini-games apart from each other.