Open up the world, please! Part I

[Naunet]

Yes, and a truely seamless map experience requires abandoning the concepts of zones

What's your point? My post had no confusion about what SE might have to do to improve their zones - only my opinion on what I prefer and examples of games that managed zones differently. GW2 is a perfect example of exploiting the benefits of instanced zones to its fullest. You can walk around the entirety of Divinity's Reach, for example, up and down alleys, through markets, winding in and around multi-leveled neighborhoods and parks - and go inside a huge chunk of the buildings. Compare that to a city like Ul'dah or even our more recent Kugane and it's obvious how restricted things are.

[DPZ2]

GW2 is a perfect example of exploiting the benefits of instanced zones to its fullest. You can walk around the entirety of Divinity's Reach, for example, up and down alleys, through markets, winding in and around multi-leveled neighborhoods and parks - and go inside a huge chunk of the buildings.

Not exactly the 'entirety' of Divinity's Reach. I cannot get to a certain Inn there, or a certain orphanage, for example, without entering a separate instance with those specific features -- and by features I mean alleys, markets, neighborhoods. Same in several other residential districts within the other major cities, places where major plot happens.

The other thing about that lack of 'seamless' ... aetherytes are a big method of moving about in the cities these days. If I am at the Fishing Guild in Limsa, I don't run up steps to get to the Aftcastle, I use an aetheryte.

[Naunet]

Not exactly the 'entirety' of Divinity's Reach. I cannot get to a certain Inn there, or a certain orphanage, for example, without entering a separate instance with those specific features -- and by features I mean alleys, markets, neighborhoods. Same in several other residential districts within the other major cities, places where major plot happens.

You're talking about the player character's "Home District" - that's instanced off because of phasing for story things.