I rejoined the game in March, and needed to grind hard (limited playtime, job/wife/other interests) to get to where I could do SB when it came out, so I am absolutely taking my sweet time. I am actually letting all the dialogue play out, reading all the text, walking instead of running, etc. I tried to do that as much as I could with the Dragonsong bridge between HW and SB, because FF games rock for story, and it shouldn't be missed imho, so now that I know I have a two year window to listen to Alphinaud, I will let him have his dialogue glory. =)

That said, yes, in any MMO xpac early release, tons of people will be racing to get world/server firsts. Buddy of mine got 3 of them in WoW, all related to crafting. World firsts are a thing for some people.