Two comments on things discussed above. One serious comment and one ...less so.
Nothing wrong with looking like a hog farmer. One of the better known paladins in fantasy over the last few decades almost married a pig-farmer. Of course, Paksenarrion only became a paladin after running away from home in horror over the thought of marrying him. Perhaps if her father had given the dowry to one of the pigs instead of the farmer that entire 10 book series would have gone quite differentlly.
On raiding - from what VR has said there will be raiding in the game but this will not be a raid-based game and it will be much less important than other aspects of the game.
Those who say that it *must* end up as a raid-based game because eventually we will all be maximum level are underestimating how differently Pantheon will work compared to WoW and other games where it takes days or at most weeks to get to maximum level.
Firstly - the game is designed to appeal to people that like going slowly, seeing the content, stopping to sniff the roses. Sure there will be people that race to the maximum level but they will be a smaller percentage than in other games and will have less impact on design decisions.
Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, it will take us all far more time to get through the content. At least if the game works as planned. Thus, the average player will not be sitting bored at level-cap for a large portion of the game's life cycle. VR will have time to add content - by expansions or otherwise - before a huge percentage of us get to maximum level. Game design will encourage (but not require) alts and crafting and for those focusing, or even just dabbling in such, progress to maximum level will be even slower. Thus, less call for more than a token amount of raid content to keep those that like to raid happy.
Thirdly. no in-game store. Do not underestimate the importance of this on game design. Developers rationally make decisions intended to maximize income. Since raiders and pvp players spend far more in stores per-capita than other players they have a disproportionate influence. Properly so - they support the game more. If Pantheon relies purely on subscriptions the slowest rose-sniffing casual player contributes just as much to the game as does the highest end raider. And .....there are a whole *lot* more of us.