There is nothing worse than creating a new characters then mounting that 3 legged Senche tiger that is about as quick as a Nord leaving a bar.
Converting the aspects of speed, carrying capacity & stamina into different forms of craftable and lootable saddles would provide a quicker, more entertaining but not necessarily cheaper pathway to achieving the mount bonuses than slogging through the excruciatingly slow 1pt increases that we suffer at the moment. Saddles could also have 'slots' for customization, such as cosmetics like armors or functionality like a short speed boost or extra carrying capacity of certain items like potions.