I just wanted to offer an additional viewpoint on the 1,000 hour discussion.

On the 1st character that I had a few years ago, I did hit over 1,000 hours before even starting Heavensward. At that point, I wanted to experience every little niche of what the game had to offer, and I'm sure there are other players that have a similar desire. It wasn't that difficult to hit, either - I got all classes to 50 so that I could get a feel for them, and outfitted them all with Ironworks gear. I also did a lot of crafting/gathering and got the Mor Dhona gear, and relic quests, too, which easily take hundreds of hours on their own.

It definitely wasn't required, but increased my enjoyment of the game as a completionist.

It did give me a very good feel for the game, but I didn't consider myself a veteran by any means, not even making it to endgame content yet by that point.

Just something to consider for the data.