I can safely say that I'm very glad we had to explore for Aether points. After actually getting all the points and being able to fly, it was great. However, if I had been able to do so from the beginning, it would have felt empty and pointless to even fill out the zone with anything. Plus it gave me a feeling of accomplishment, even if it wasn't hard, it was still something I worked for.

I also love exploration in MMOs, so that was a plus as well.