Tanaka specifically mentioned that he wanted to keep players playing in the same world and would try to limit instancing, so it's tantamount to false advertising to drastically alter the game in such a way that the diametric opposite is now true.

I believe that there should be instanced dungeons (although doing 500 speedruns to get gear is stupid). And I believe there is a time and a place for instances. But Hamlet defences? Really now? This seems like something which, by nature, should not be instanced.

Sure the engine may not be able to efficiently handle 40+ models on screen at any time (which by the way is also related to personal system specs), however, it seems a bit contrived to go into an instance to defend a hamlet. I mean, there's just no sense of urgency there. I guess I thought it would be something you could just jump in an do (like a dynamic Guild Wars 2 type of event), but nope, just an instanced mod of FFXI's Garrison feature.