On bots, it's probably because you don't go to ARR zones anymore. Go to any place where there's a MSQ and you'll probably see BLMs teleporting under the ground and getting achievements 16 at a time and shit like that. Also hit up Uldah, check inside the FC chest in the market area, you'll probably find 20bots stacked inside it. Can also try a player search on 50-50 BLMs. They're very prominent in ARR, but they don't buy expansions so you'll rarely see them at all outside that.
I totally agree on the weird situation with the expansion, but that could be fixed by them just giving access to the expansions with a preorder, but the problem is they somehow need a way to be able to remove them when people inevitably cancel their preorders. They could also probably bundle 15free days or whatever with the expansions, this way returning players don't have to both sub and pay the expansions. Limit this to once per year or whatever.
I agree completely that giving expansions in the base game would be better for players. The problem is the impact it'd have on the whole botting situation imo. The fact they're capped in ARR farming Amdapor Keep keep their prices not super interesting, and it keeps them contained to specific parts of the game rather than the full thing. If you open expansions suddenly they're generating more gold and they're present in a lot more places. It could be worth the cost, I don't know. I think I like the idea of having free expansions like HW that requires fiddling with stuff though. Maybe you can only "buy" that if you paid 1 month of sub at some point, so it weeds out the bots(which generally just remake a char once they reach the end of the free 30days.
I have seen a fuck ton of bots crowding around the FC chests, don't know how I forgot about that
I've been thinking about the xpac preorder thing a lot, and the more I think about it, the more I don't get, because they already have a system that provides limited time access to an expansion (early access). Just have the player's access to HW/StB revoked if they don't put in their key before the grace period ends, just like with ShB access. I know people could technically just preorder and have access to the xpacs for a few months, but honestly, it's worth any perceived losses. Those people probably would not have coughed up the $40 to get HW/StB now regardless.
Having the xpacs locked behind 1 paid month would also be a good solution, since even if they got up to 35 via the free trial, it's very unlikely that a player will get from level 35 to the end of 2.X content in a month. Anything better than their current system would be good, IMO. People want to participate in the zeitgeist around the ShB launch, but if you tell a returning player "In order to play ShB at launch, cough up $40 for StB, then $40 for ShB, plus sub time" or a new player "In order to play ShB at launch, cough up $60 now for ARR/HW/StB, then $40 for ShB, plus sub time". As someone who started playing within the past year, the latter is basically what I had to do.
The HW giveaway was a smart idea, but it's ultimately a temporary band-aid for a larger problem. Two of the important things for an online game are getting new players and getting relapsed players back in, and FFXIV requires both groups to pay a fuck ton. More than basically any other video game out there.