no i dont think an MMO should be just progression no story no fluff
what i think is that they need to continue the progression somehow , i think its a complete waste of dev time to come out with so many new things and alot fo new content in 2.1 and not have ANY aspect of that a progression to the current content of a character. a MMO doesnt have to be all progression all the time but when end game is already pretty small compared to other MMOS at release putting out 7 new aspects of the game in the first big patch but have all of it lower in Ilvl progression just simply doesnt make any sense.
My point is when people run out of stuff to progress with they get bored .. whether its the majority or the minority it WILL hurt the game which isnt good for anyone