Raiding stories are technically not important in the main story line of the game. Coil was a heavier tie in with 1.0 and a conclusion to that story. Alexander is mostly it's own thing. The stakes are high on both, but they are ultimately large side quests that do not affect the streamlined story.
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On a separate note, whatever side someone is on the argument, please do not pretend that just because of a hypothetical possibility of excluding casual players from raid content means that casual players have nothing to do. 95% of this game is catered towards casual players. The way SE builds content in this game, I would argue they build content towards bad players (Relic for example).
I would even argue on just making Hard > Savage, but since we have to argue this in SE's mindset. The three levels Normal > Hard > Savage is the only realistic compromise SE may do if we pressure them enough.
It did not kill the hardcore scene. It killed the midcore scene, because your choices were painfully easy or painfully hard without a proper middle ground that a lot of other MMO's practice.
