well i don't care whether people like it or not. i play with a group i enjoy being around. i have 3 friends outside the game in my ls and a few of their friends outside the game although i have not met their other friends personally. we group for everything being parties, quests, leves, grinding, fishing, and crafting. if part of our group is missing we always shout in ls first to give that option to join in and if nobody joins we put out a public shout and open a party flag.

parties are very group oriented and i enjoy the group i am in. in my group you are always welcome to join when we have space, but i am not telling a friend they can't join for someone i don't know. we use voice chat and have a good time in our group and that will not be changed. if they got rid of leve linking we would just all solo our leves and if they made it where you couldn't retry we would just link up what we could and then solo the rest to maximize time.