Well, you are right about the comfort thing. That's the only point of having the level cap super extended to 80 vis-a-vis GW1's level 20 cap mid way through the game. It's an effort to give the franchise bandwagoners and Mr. Sour MMO Grapes Esq. an easily digestible structure.
Even The Secret World was not brave enough to abandon levels totally. Funcom just masked leveling as skill point gains & gear upgrades. Perhaps it's too harsh to fault Anet for not going a step further.
Perhaps not though.