Why is the Solar separate instance from Waking Sands / Rising Stone?

[Enkidoh]

The Solar has always been behind a locked door. SE always knew the zone is going to be crowded so they put the door in there to act as a camera barrier so players on the other side are not rendered.

SE never put in a patch note that says when they stopped sending other player data in these zones, but it was somewhere between 2.1 and 2.2, because you could still see other players during the early days of Rising Stones (which is why it's designed the same way).

No it hasn't, it was freely able to be entered (although it did have a door you had to click on, it was not an instanced zone only you inhabited, it was a seperate section of the Waking Sands that all players could freely access together as the one area and would cluster around, I should know, I was in the Beta test from the beginning and early access of the game where it became very much a problem, so SE changed it very early on.

Also incidentally, they don't state every change or alteration they make in patch notes, some are just listed as a generic "Other changes and alterations were made" or something like that stated right at the end of the notes, as they simply do not have time or space to list every change they make to the game, it's simple pragmatism.

And, as proof the Solar was an 'open' zone multiple players could enter freely, here is a screenshot taken not long after launch (early September 2013) early in the main scenario questline in the Solar...



Notice all the players clustered around Minfilia's desk. That simply does not happen anymore.