I really hope they don’t go overboard on the Mount functionality. Guild Wars 2 Mount system is awesome, but it doesn’t fit into New World whatsoever. I honestly hope Mounts in New World are going to be fairly basic and grounded, and most definitely no flying mounts.
I’m waiting for angry earth-style mounts special to Aeternum island together with normal mounts.
Black Desert Online’s mount system is just as you said, there are neither overly simple mounts nor an overdone system
following the guild wars 2 mount system would be the formula to success. the devs did mention that they want to make it a skill so we’ll have to wait and see how that turns out.