You guys are funny. Seriously. I can honestly say i was surprised at the 8 man limit PUG other 16 thing but it is hardly the end of the world.
If i made a huge post saying how i want to play just with my wife through all the content, i would be stripped naked and dragged through the streets by a WHM on a Unicorn to the sound of a 1000 people chanting MMO is about playing in groups.
Now the fact that you guys cannot play with just your own special group it is riot time.

Now i do understand that people will claim that playing with a group of 4, 8, 16, 24 is different to just 2 people but it is still basically wanting to hide away from the rest of the games population.

I also do understand that playing with people you trust etc is more fun and being trolled by strangers is a fun killer to, but take this as a chance to build the strength of the community.
If anything the devs are trying to make more people work together and make the game less clique orientated.
FC etc are a important part of the game but being friends with multiple FC's would make the game more fun for all.