I played Beta. The game is simply amazing. Trust me, you will not be disappointed. I preordered Dec 2nd, so I'm also looking toward a Friday EGA (which is fine with me) But it's definitely worth the wait.
On beta, I skipped quests, (mainly did my class quests) but I got to level fifteen and they actually started getting harder, so I'm going to focus on quest grinding early on so it'll be easier later.
The PVP'ers care because they don't want to get pwned in War zones. I'm going take my time leveling, grind flash points, quests and just thoroughly enjoy the game.