Personally the aetheryte thing doesn't bother me but what bothers me instead is how even a city is split into several macro areas.

So instead of focusing on that, how about removing loading screens from the city and areas and make them bigger (gw2 does it pretty well if you ask me)

I think with that out of the way, the immersion would be much higher regardless of the ather-whatever being present or not. But I digress.