I tend to think of hardcore gamers as people for whom games are a hobby as opposed to just a pastime. The idea that hardcore equates to ability in a game is flawed. Just because someone invests time in something doesn't mean they are good at it.

I've seen a lot of posts in this thread from people who identify themselves as hardcore, and who seem to a have a very strong sense of entitlement over "casuals." I'm not really sure why the OP singles out casuals as acting entitled. Hardcore players aren't entitled to be treated as if they are some sort of elite group who the devs have an obligation to cater too above everyone else. You could just as easily argue that someone who pays for multiple accounts is entitled to more from the game because they give SE more money each month than a person who pays for a single account. I don't think SE is going to cater to that sort of reasoning from any subgroup of players.

If you play 15 hours a day you can level all your jobs to cap, but if your playskills suck you won't get a good endgame shell. The casual player who plays 2 - 3 hours a day and has great playskills can get a good endgame shell. Does that 15 hours a day entitle that hardcore player to the casual players NM drops? It really boils down to what you can accomplish for yourself in the time you can play.

Some of my favorite titles in XI are from 3 day pop HNM like Nid or Cerb, so I do like the idea of having that sort of accomplishment in XIV. I think there are other ways of going about creating that sort of challenge than requiring people to wake up at 4 am on a workday just to have someone bot claim the NM out from under them.