Yeah but at least until the first expansion it was all unique. and it opened a branch to zilart but the main story was still it's own thing.

I guess it could still turn out that way but it seems they are going to favor the WoTG style branching then converging storylines. When you did Windurst Rank 1-10 it was ALL unique and revolved purely around the city state. Missions so far have sent us to Ul'Dah as part of the same story structure.