You can be an MMO with instance fest and quest hubs but still be able to socialize and meet people and do things together also, plenty of lores. -cough- WoW -cough.

I am glad for once we have a director that doesn't play only FFXI (probably never played) and to be so stagnant about their definition of MMO like the prev director and ignoring the rest of the world like a brick wall, definition of an MMO will change according to the most successful of their genre out there.