Do you remember the "Pharos Sirius" dungeon that got released in 2.1 and many players failing and/or avoiding it like the plague? That should tell you the skill level of most of the player base. Keep in mind this dungeon at release was still nowhere near the level of the Hard and Extreme primals during the time.

Regardless of how hard or easy a mandatory or normal-leveled side quest becomes, bad players will always be bad if they make no effort to improve themselves when things do get challenging.