Ya, McQuaid is back but not working on EQ Next unfortunately. Jeff Butler who worked on EQ during the classic era and later started Sigil (Vanguard) is the creative director at SOE over EQ Next.
Thats actually the best thing I've heard in the last few months about EQ Next. That and Brad McQuaid saying that EQ and Vanguard fans specifically will enjoy EQN and basically implied that its sort of the game they intended VG:SOH to be.
"Saw a preview of the EQNext intro yesterday. I think EQ and VG players are going to love it!"
"It has features that Jeff & I wanted to put in EQ & VG (& a bunch of other great ideas) but the tech wasn't there yet. Well, it's there now!"
https://twitter.com/Aradune