Or, your idea could be a completely different system... perhaps elite guildhests instead of elite leves, even. The development team could probably set up some amazing guildhest scenarios.

That said, I don't think the answer here is to make the hunt system popped or instanced. This game already has enough popped/instanced content, and desperately needs more open-world content, not less.

The system just needs to be improved, and/or players should have more options like the one you described. However, some people really enjoy the competitive nature of chasing down open-world marks, which are basically NMs. While some people may enjoy the content more if it's popped or instanced, then others will enjoy it less if it's no longer open-world, competitive content.