The GC leaders will be used a lot more in the future, that's pretty certain. The main reason various NPCs aren't memorable is simply because you don't see them enough. Of course, if FFXI wasn't as messed up at launch as it was, we might be visiting new places and seeing more of the main story characters than we are now. Most of the dev team focus is on 2.0, so we're not going to see a lot of change until that hits.