I feel like part of the reason is, if you have to farm the cyphers to get to that research point, then have to do the quest line on every single character, that will keep you playing longer. At least in their minds it will, all it does for me is make me want to play fewer alts.
On this point of the cache for the mount items, is it worth it, 700 cyphers for a what, 1% chance at the item. If the drop chance of those items was a little higher like 10-20% chance them yeah, might be worth it.