Firstly.... You should go ahead and lump SoE into the ruination of Vanguard too. When SoE "bought out" Sigil and took over Vanguard is when it REALLY started to crash.
That said...
Brad has already stated that he has a "five year plan" for Pantheon. One of the big problems with EQ and Vanguard, it was financially infeasable to self-publish and maintain the game because of the overhead costs. With Pantheon, all of their shards are hosted "in the cloud", so they do not have all of the overhead that games of "years past" have had. VR is self-publishing this game rather than partnering (some would say making a deal with the devil) with a publishing studio such as SoE. That will help the game stay "pure to the vision".
Well, to be fair that whole debacle with the Microsoft publishing deal was the first kick in the Jimmy for Vanguard. But MMORPGs change over time. It's an inevitability. I'm hopeful this one will be one that will endure a long time and keep the fun and challenge coming. But nothing is guaranteed. New content will come, older will become obsolete, and some great things will be added as will some questionable ones. It's as my guild leader would say, the ebb and flow.
That said, all we can hope is that the devs have their plans well laid out and weigh each decision as best they can. I'm sure they will. They want to make a good game too and aren't actively trying to sabotage their own product.
We do not need to go over this again folks, Brad has spoken about a plan of action after the official release and hinted at possible private servers to allow the community to keep the game alive for years to come, nothing is set in stone, so don;t quote me but please search for these things before creating a new post as more often than not, after 3 years of development and discussions, you will find that your idea, question or topic has already been addressed, several times.
Thank you for understanding. :)