There are two sides to the story.
1) The lvl 50 people trying to gear as fast as possible in order to get ready/do endgame content.
2) The people that wont ever really touch endgame content that take their time with EVERYTHING. (Most are not even 50 yet)
Take your pick.
(I'm with 1 btw =P)
PS - Not that I think option 2 is necessarily a bad thing, I just never pay attention to the story and love to jump into endgame right awayTo each their own.