I'm a mid-core player. I choose to not play end game. (What's the incentive?)

[Auteur]

And it bears repeating that the hardcore demographic has not, and is not, SE's target audience. The main reason is economics: F2P cash shops are much more effective at monetizing hardcore players, which are as a whole a very small percentage, than subscriptions. Subs cap the revenue from a single player while F2P cash shops can truly milk hardcore players for staggering five to even six figure sums of money per person.

Hence SE, running a sub based MMO, rightly must appeal to the widest audience possible rather than a select minority. Simply put, this game is not meant for people like you OP and you should instead look at F2P mmos, if you can bear dealing with their cash shops.