I am a strong advocate of the idea that endgame should be developed around the hardcore community, not the casual community. The developers need to take note of how Blizzard advertised Diablo 3's difficulty settings. "You will get your *** kicked. You will die. It is not easy." These are all things that the developers should be proud to admit. People seem to think that the hardcore community is much smaller than the casual community. While I will agree it is smaller, it isn't so small that it should be neglected.
When it's all said and done, a good 12 to 14 boss operation with a deep level of immersion (think Naxx, Uld, or ICC) will do more for this game than anything the OP mentioned.