This is one of those issues that not many like to bring up without getting flamed to oblivion. There definitely needs to be content for both groups, and in 2.0 I believe we will start seeing those different content types. The hardcore players who put more time in (whether they play the game a lot or not) deserve to have that bad ass gear. They put in the time and effort to learn the content, overcome it, and put in the time required. I don't think the content should be dumbed down to easy-mode for others who don't have as much time. It's a little unfair. That's not to say a casual should not get the gear either. It should just take them significantly longer. Just because their casual doesn't mean they want easy-mode.

I've played MMOs for some time, and most of the time I have noticed that these two groups generally have different priorities due to the low amount of time they have. The hardcore might want the best gear possible so they spam Garuda 24/7 while say a casual wants to do Moogle or level their crafts/gatherers/get artifact gear (example).