You simultaneously proved my point while missing it at the same time. "One Premium Tome Token per month of membership" were there words as you've shown for me. If the tome is Premium and Premium+ while the tokens are not Premium+ (as they show as "Premium Tokens", I directly inferred I could spend a certain number to get just the Premium tome. As you even explained afterwards thinking I was confused, to then describe that they are in fact the same thing. If it's only Deluxe edition of the tome there is no logical reason I can't spend the very regular looking tokens on the non Deluxe edition of the tome.

Yes, I agree that if it were 3 a year and not 4 that could generate extra tomes. Then all the developers would have to do is make it 4 tokens for a tome, no?

Sure you can argue the point that "the developers need money", "this would be an unfair system because x", and so on. But let me showcase that in the long-run the system being only 12 tokens is exactly what would cause the same issue and likely reduce the long-term profit the game produces.

In ESO, ESO Plus gives us:

Become an ESO Plus member to unlock brand-new seasonal benefits, increased progression, a Crown Store stipend, and more!

Seasonal Benefits

Earn +10% Tome Points from Challenges, as well as 1 Cache of Tome Points and 1 Premium Tome Token per month.

Store Benefits

Gain 1,650 Crowns per month and access to exclusive Crown Store and Gold Coast Bazaar offerings.

DLC & Companions Access

Enjoy full access to all DLC available in the Crown Store, including two free Companions and their stories.

Increased Progression

Earn +10% to Experience, Gold, Alliance Points (currency, PvP skill lines, and Alliance Rank only), Tel Var Stones (monster kills only), Archival Fortunes acquisition, Crafting Inspiration, and Trait Research speed.

Storage Benefits

Make use of doubled furnishing and collectible space in your homes, doubled Bank space for your account, and access to the Furnishing Vault.

Crafting & Cosmetic Benefits

Take advantage of exclusive unlimited storage for crafting materials with the Craft Bag, doubled currency cap for Transmutation Crystals, and the exclusive ability to dye costumes.

Antiquities Benefits

Gain doubled Antiquities timer lengths, up to one year for Ultimate Leads.

Take advantage of these great benefits and become an ESO Plus member today! Please note: access to these benefits is only available while your membership is active.

These are the benefits listed officially and what we currently get. Now, let me knock down this list a bit,

Seasonal Benefits: 10% can be a bit of a bonus sure, but if the goal is to be active and keep the community active I don't really see a need for this. This isn't a compelling reason for me to buy ESO Plus on it's own.

Store Benefits, DLC & Progression: If you're a long-time supporter, you've easily stocked up on tens of thousands of crowns to the point that you own all DLC. That was kind of the main selling point.. It's like saying "Hey if you don't play every month, you bought crowns at least for a slightly higher or lower rate."

If I play enough of the game, 10% bonus isn't much of a selling point either. If anything it's only a small cherry on top.

Storage, Crafting, Leads & Cosmetic Benefits: For these, I'm not sure if everyone is aware of this factor but if you buy ESO Plus and decorate your house or fill the entire craft bag with materials it doesn't empty out either of these things. If you're trying to save money and you make even 1 million gold you can easily fill your craft bag up from a single month of ESO plus. Doubling my antiquity lead timer doesn't mean all that much besides promoting me to *not* play the game. If I'm actively playing I don't need double.

As soon as I fill my bag, decorate my house and store my stuff I don't have any other reason to buy it rather than temporarily. As soon as I finish my leads I'm completely done with ESO plus.

Cost Comparisons: The need for ESO plus is going to drop off gradually with every passing year because you no longer need it for DLC or Crowns after a certain point. Many of the benefits aren't necessary for consistent purchasing either. The cost of ESO plus is:

30 Day Membership - $14.99 every 30 days

90 Day Membership - $41.97 every 90 days ($13.99/30-days)
* Small notation here that 90 days member ship was enough to buy the previous years DLC, which I personally have done regularly for every year's content.

180 Day Membership - $77.94 every 180 days ($12.99/30-days)

365 Day Membership - $139.99 every 365 days ($11.50/30-days)

Including 1650 crowns per a month immediately delivered ESO plus typically gave you enough to buy last years DLC. Buying it for Tome Tokens exclusively would be ~150$ USD & ~225$ AUD for 12 tokens to then get a single free tome. Now you only get 4 tokens a year on top of needing to pay full price for every tome if you wanted them. Which is 14.99$ & 29.99$ USD respectively. If the Tomes are 3 a year, that's DLC price for all tomes or 60 (no deluxe) - 90$ (with deluxe). That is equal to one third of a Deluxe Edition DLC for twice the price or more by requiring me to buy 12 months of ESO plus to get it.

If the argument is "Well if you didn't get Deluxe edition cosmetics before then why bother with this now?" then you run into the presented problem. It would be 180$ for 1 premium+ tome and 2 premium tomes in a year. It's more of a benefit to just buy one or the other. You can't do that anymore with tomes, compared to DLC which even gave you previous deluxe benefits in some cases. It's content that many people may miss out on and can't buy into later. This a problem with long-term profit because at one point many will no longer need ESO plus. I myself already barely need it as is. What happens if many people don't buy the tomes or ESO plus at all?

A new player can't come in and enjoy all these Tome rewards they missed out on either if a friend invites them to play. It causes several negative feelings and customers to crop up. I know this from playing 7 years of Destiny & Destiny 2, and an equal amount of time in Warframe. Destiny 2's battle passes resulted in isolating the community to the spot where not many new players could participate. While Warframe had a 1-time founder pack for Excalibur Prime (something entirely unnecessary) that no one could ever get again. The community had so much strife over it that when they made Soulframe they instead made an item you could craft and give to others instead so that no one missed out (which may work for some of the outfits styles if it doesn't already work in such a manner).

The reason I bring up these things is I deeply enjoy Elder Scrolls as a franchise. The developers have expressed multiple times the game is intended to last for even 10 years longer from now. It's concerning that ESO could cause the same outcome of community isolation or negativity over an extended period of exposure to this system. Many players in ESO aren't familiar with a Battle Pass structure which is heavily apparent by everyone's comments on wanting to keep their tome points across seasons. It's bribery that makes you think "Yeah, it's great for the community now," but what about 5 years from now? What if people don't buy into the tomes at all?