Exactly, LotRO and AoC did a fairly decent job of making "epic storyline quests" that were involving, required multiple steps and sometimes even groups for better rewards and "Tasks" for random grinding / knock out a couple of quests before work etc.
I think this is a happen medium that allows the RP player to be the hero and still get his "phat lewts" while still allowing that min/max player push to end game content.
I think I heard Curt say it before, but you need to hook the player in from the start, and having some unique dungeons / zones from the start with cool quests that involve movies or cut scenes really does the trick.
Just cause you are level 10 doesn't mean you shouldn't be able to get a zone like Sirens Grotto (one of my favorite zones in EQ1) and have some long fun quests with multiple stage quests to go along with it.
On the flip side I can see the argument about time invested and players skipping content due to out leveling it too fast, but think about Befallen, Crushbone, Splitpaw etc. Noob zones that aren't your typical "spider cave"
Quality before quantity please
