I honestly don't see a problem with having at least some content that requires a committed group working together. This is an MMO, not a single player game; there should be some things that have to be approached as a static group, not as a group of randoms.

I think a lot of people view statics as being far more complicated than they have to be. Are there some statics who are hardcore and raid multiple days a week for hours at a time? Sure. But there are also just as many like mine and like the one I sub in for sometimes, which are just groups of players who enjoy playing together and like to challenge content together. Mine raids for maybe a total of three or four hours a week, often less because sometimes people can't all be online at the same time. Half the time our raid times end up being a case of "Oh hey, all 8 of us are on, let's go for a little while." We still were able to down T9 in about a month. Now we're excited to get to try our hand at Final Coil.

What incentive is there to get to know other players and put a group together if everything is DFable right off the bat?