Pretty much. At the end of the day "playing the game" though is still required to play the [new parts] of the game, whether that means someone going through the MSQ or just pounding FATEs, Levequests and repeated unlockable dungeon runs instead of fetchquests and [skippable] cutscenes.
I would imagine after a certain point, SE will probably open up much of the game or make all patches Y in X.Y "optional" content to unlock some new expansion X + 1.
