The only mmos I can think of with any appreciable amount of endgame content (or time to complete it) at release are EQ and WoW. Why? EQ was just a gigantic grind from hell, both for levels and for gear (gear was also a massive RNG crapshoot to acquire), and the game was VERY unforgiving. WoW at launch had issues: server stability, class balance, you name it. But the big thing with WoW at launch was that it took cues from EQ and had massive time sinks like having to have specific resist sets that you needed to build, and massive PITA quests to get keyed to even enter instances at all. What's the common thread between EQ and WoW? Timesinks. Gated content. Things that the mmo playerbase will NOT accept nowadays, period. So every mmo since WoW has either become fairly casual or tried to copy the WoW model of mmo design, and as a result, they're all fairly "easymode" and "casual" compared to EQ and Vanilla WoW.