I think subscription models work if you have a lot of time to play and if you find the game very immersive. For FFXIV, I don't know if those two criteria have been met for me yet.

You can't really compare games to other forms of entertainment because they are different forms of entertainment. I watch movies or read books for different reasons than I play games. But you can compare different game models, and I've always prefered an up-front cost model (for all games, not MMOs, which I have only ever played one). For most games, you pay for the disc and then you can play it all you want. For a subscription MMO, you have to pay for the disc and the monthly fee (for each player in your household). So a MMO has to be that much better than a normal game, which you can play all you want as long as you want with whoever you want after you buy it.

FFXI was a subscription model and I played it and loved it. But I played it when the game had already been out 4-5 years already and it was much more polished than it was at launch (and probably not worth my subscription back then). I also had access to tons more content than the first subscribers. I'm wondering if FFXIV will be this way too. I much prefer to join a game like this when it is a few years old rather than at the start because everything will be much more smooth.