Why though?! Why must I talk to an NPC? Why can’t I just select the other mount?!
You’re not explaining this. We don’t have to talk to an NPC to get access to our ground mounts just because we walked somewhere. Why should I have to talk to an NPC to pull the Gyrocopter out of the same pocket I put the dragon in?
You keep talking about punishing failure and avoiding exploits and that doesn’t make sense; the point of Dragonriding is to go fast, not dictate whether you arrive at all.