I suppose your mileage will vary, but when I played this game in 1999, I couldn’t get a party together that wanted to do anything but grind the orcs in the common lands. Everyone kept saying that’s where the best experience is. I asked people when the game started to get good, and they told me “this is the game.”
And shit like this is why I don't like MMOs. The game should be ending once I've played long enough to max my character. Like you said, the journey is the point of RPGs IMO.
I think post game content should still be important, but the common design of having players rush through leveling content so they can run hamster wheel content at max level is terrible. I really wish the whole game was the game, not just the stuff you do after the mind numbingly easy leveling.
You needed to get out of the Faydark and go somewhere where the higher level players were. All the noobs would stay in the starting areas and grind an easy boss zone. All the good players were off across the world, far away from those starting areas. I used to get good parties by hopping off the boat between the continents at the little island, because only the actual adventuring players were traveling there.
The best time I had, though, was when I got enough people to start my own guild. It was an RP guild, and my character was an egotistical, megalomaniac High Elf that started the Order of Pureblood Elves. We only took in Elf characters as members. Half-Elfs could also petition to join, but they were treated only slightly better than other races.
The hardest part of that was getting my reputation up with the Dark Elf city so I could go there and recruit dark elf players to the guild without having the guards attack on sight.