Can I progress in storyline without doing dungeons?

[Gnova]

Once upon a time, the bread and butter of car manufacturing and purchase was the Model T Ford. Thankfully, we've moved beyond that now.

But cars still have four wheels and a steering wheel 100 years later.
Things can advance (instanced content, solo content, endless side quests) but the core remains the same.
MMO tourists (people that flit from game to game but never spending significant time at endgame) want the games to be changed to suit their playstyle. The people that pay the subs for extended periods of time spend the time at endgame and part of the fun of playing the game is earning new gear and doing challenging content. Without that population a MMO is doomed to failure.