The developers mentioned something during the Everquest Series panel at E3 that I thought was very interesting, and could possibly be a hint at their stance on instanced content.
They mentioned that EQ2 was moving to a system where there is open world competition for bosses, but there are also instanced "practice arenas" where guilds can hone their skills against avatars of the bosses for lesser rewards. You'll still want to compete for the open world boss, but if you don't get it, you'll still have content.
I can see the same type of thing for instanced zones. Have the open world camps for the good loot, and instanced zones as back up for those who want competition free experience camps.
EDIT: The devs have also mentioned that EQN will be a "do what you want" kind of character experience, so I'm assuming you'll be able to level off of crafting and possibly other forms of gameplay, like diplomacy, trade, or even farming (crops, not loot... /puke).
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