Yes. This made me think that there's still room for innovation that could entice me into playing a current MMO!

However, didn't they simply run out of money and wind up forced to launch an unfinished product? Seemed like the powers that be didn't deem it worthy of the further investment to finish the game.

I think the point that SOE got involved was Vanguard's downfall... couldn't be letting it get ahead of EQ2, despite it having way more potential.

The game was a complete mess before SOE even got involved. MS dropped it for a reason. I know, people like to think that MS just stomped all over Brads glorious dream out of malice. They saw the game, it was a mess and was not even close to being on track for a release. They ultimately decided that it was worth taking shortcuts, and implementing "mainstream" mmo features to get another publisher on board and actually get the game released.

Yeah, there were a lot of great ideas, but ideas don't mean much when you and your team can't execute them.

^ this.

In fact, having lots of great ambitious ideas is usually bad for a project.