I actually like the raid approach. I've played FFXI and I've played WoW. Now I've always been bothered by FFXI's approach with NMs and drops that can be an anyone on the server can claim type of fight, also adding in that some of these NMs carry a heavy respawn timer with them.

Raids are really another form of challenging content without the competition from an outside source. At this point you're only against other members in your group concerning the rights to certain pieces. You're only removing that influence but there's still the difficulty of the challenge so you still have your rights to harder to obtain gear.

"But oh, boo hoo, I like being a special snowflake cause my group claimed it and I got the super special drop and you didn't and you may never see it because it takes forever to respawn and then my group will claim it from you AGAIN!" There are other ways you can make equipment rare. Let's move away from the FFXI approach where someone has to get on at 4 AM in the morning on their time just so they can get that gear from a 20 hour world pop NM or risk the wrath of your linkshell because your life (and sleep) is more important.

The only thing is that SE needs to be more creative in the future when they think up of content to put in. The first 2 raids are okay, but who wants to have everything follow "Do X or Y, defeat Z and beat the clock in the process"?