Well I think Anet can pull this off, and if tomorrow gives out the waves of ecstasy from the press like I'm hoping it will, then all the companies that have sub based models will shit their pants. The video made amazing points and Anet themselves have spouted off the same thing in an interview at one of the conventions, of how the community at large thinks that running servers is very expensive. I have to admit i was part of that group because when MMOs first started coming out, the servers were costly. And so the propaganda was just spread around among ourselves and we just perpetuated it for years.
I've done everything i can in WoW, i have way too many alts, but my "main ones" are all 85, every class, with some having a gear level of 370-390. I do pve and pvp with all of them. I've experienced content from all different spectrums in the game but the design has been declining since the end of TBC. The problem, as people have stated already, is just that you're having to rely on 20 or so other people to do their job and maintain focus for this encounter. I'll be honest, there have been nights on progression content that i've lost focus because after wiping after the tank forgets to position right, you just lose interest and its downhill for the raid from there. Its a domino effect.
Ultimately, my favorite times in PvE have been instancing in vanilla/TBC where your group of 5 had to work together to clear the place. Not the massive 40man raids or 25mans, that felt too congested. The main challenge factor for these type of designs (WoW/Rift) was the fact you had to get so many people to all be on the same page and have the same level of focus for this completely scripted event.
One of my all time favorite fights was the PvP fight in TOC for WoW. It called for control, kiting, burst, interrupts, etc from everyone and provided a very dynamic fight. Being a beast in trapping and kiting on my hunter, completely locking down a healer/caster on my rogue, or fearing, dotting, banishing pets on my lock were all awesome and that was only some of my experience with that fight. And when you do such an awesome job on that fight and people take notice, thats a great feeling. Now its more of people looking at the DPS meters and determining that the top 5 are amazingly good at the game. Even now in the pathetic excuse that Dragon Soul is, its just looking at meters and making sure you top them to get what little enjoyment you can out of the same raid you've been raiding for the last few weeks. Theres plenty wrong with these types of games and I sincerely hope that GW2 comes in and shakes up this industry. Because as the video stated, we the gamers are letting this happen.Thats the diffirence between a scripted event and giving a mob traiths, skills and a certain behavior and just letting it do what it does best. Sadly, that last wouldnt work to great in a game like WoW, to many people.