I  agree that quests sometimes actually take away something from a game, in that they provide direction for players.  Doesn't sound like a problem, and I suppose it's not for most.  Weird people like me actually liked having to sneak into an area, find an open camp, and then pull the things they fight.  It was a grind for sure, but the extra element of challenge somehow made it feel rewarding.  I think most people would rather just skip the tedium and frustration, and that's reflected in current MMOs.  Nothing wrong with that, the more accessible the game the more money they can make with it.  I think that also accounts for a great deal of the player turnover rate, as people who feel they've actually earned something in an MMO are more reluctant to walk away from it.

I am also not a great fan of quests. Or at least how these quests are designed. If they were really quests where you actually had to solve a riddle or things like this, then yes, ok. But something like "Go and kill X" is just a cheap way to hide grind. Somehow I feel the hole concept of getting XP per level is skewed. Since you need so much XP per level you need to either kill tons of mobs or do tons of pointless quests. Imagine levels would mean some kind of qualification or certification. You get to the next level because you "mastered" the current one. Much like traditional arcade games. This, however, sets the emphasis on skill, rather than pure fixed time investment (though skill progession also involves investment of time). But skill is something that has become more and more meaningless in todays MMORPGs unfortunately. Mind you, there are several kinds of skill (reflexes, logical thinking, strategical thinking and so on).

I personally loved the amount of quests in eq2, at least in the lower levels (only levels I've palyed) you never ran out of quests to do.

Though I agree, Implimentation could be better.