I agree there needs to be more to the world itself aside from fates. I would love to see less instanced content, though I am not down for the rebirth of HNMs. I've read a lot of great ideas in here!
I can only think that, with limited resources at present, instances will be the big focus at first (along with fixing some obvious glaring issues, hopefully). But I remain really optimistic in regards to expansions! After all, Eorzea is simply one part of the world. And what a big world it could be! Full of dangers, adventures, and hopefully not aetherytes every fifty feet.