Well you see, the issue of areas being 'boxed' off is not as appealing anymore. It takes away some of the realism and appeal of the game. It only makes it feel more artificial than anything. An example would be the forests of Gridania. I was like whoaaa it looks huge! Then i look at my map and went =/. So artificially limited. Even WoW sometimes felt that way with their areas, but at least the area you are in, you don't feel that limited.

MMOs are gravitating towards more single player type action mechanics while still maintaining the MMO feel. Having a slow auto attack, or basically anything not as fast or active is usually not in people's interests.