Raiding is becoming less and less optional

[Colt47]

I think the OP might be concerned that 24 man raids will become a requirement to progress the MSQ, and therefore get to the next expansion. We sort of ran into this ARR quest gate problem caused by the excessively long Praetoreum movie slog followed by a huge number of tedious quests afterwards. Getting to Heavensward is/was a feat of patience and fortitude to say the least.

However, ARR Gate wouldn't really be made worse if a 24 man raid was involved. The big issue with the ARR Gate is the number of quests. A single 24 man raid that is a component of the MSQ would by nature have to be a face roll in comparison to the side dungeons, EX fights, and Savage mode stuff and comparable to WoD at the very least. If a group is dying in World of Darkness to the Ahriman boss they basically deserve it so not much really to say on it.

I still empathize with the whole sense of 24 mans being a game of herding cats through a slag pit in an elaborate lemmings game, though. Half the time there is always some player, who I call "little timmy", who runs off floppy armed into the jaws of death repeatedly for no actual sane reason. It's sort of a constant that exists to maintain the equalibrium between Tim the Toolman tailor omni crafter, Ken the Crack Savage Commando, and that person that keeps running hunts all day and night named Bob, who also sometimes runs maps.