If you're worried about working as airport-security-writ-large for the city-state, don't be. Arcanists are employed as customs officers, but that is an ancillary function of Mealvaan's Gate. Mealvaan's Gate is just as much the Arcanists' Guild school as it is the immigration and trade bottleneck.
As for arcanists being rarer amongst NPCs, there's an explanation for that as well. My understand is that the conjurers and thaumaturges have a long history with Gridania and Ul'dah respectively, as do their guilds. Arcanima is a school of magic developed amongst the islanders of the south seas and the guild was only opened in Limsa Lominsa in recent years. Arcanists are not new to Hydaelyn, but they are relatively new to Vylbrand and so quite new to Eorzea as a whole.
Think of it like yoga. In the West, people knew about the existence of yoga and yogis in the East for centuries. The practice itself is several millennia in the making, but it was not familiar or widely practiced in the West until recently, historically speaking.
As for arcanists being rarer amongst NPCs, there's an explanation for that as well. My understand is that the conjurers and thaumaturges have a long history with Gridania and Ul'dah respectively, as do their guilds. Arcanima is a school of magic developed amongst the islanders of the south seas and the guild was only opened in Limsa Lominsa in recent years. Arcanists are not new to Hydaelyn, but they are relatively new to Vylbrand and so quite new to Eorzea as a whole.
Think of it like yoga. In the West, people knew about the existence of yoga and yogis in the East for centuries. The practice itself is several millennia in the making, but it was not familiar or widely practiced in the West until recently, historically speaking.
