Instancing is a good thing, I hate being force to wait for one mob to re-spawn only to have someone with a faster attack tag it on me.
Having the world be more open would be nice, I found it odd a few times I was forced to use a speeder when the two areas of the map where very close to each other and was flat land.
Other MMO's have the same problem, Uldum should have been more like Tatooine, in Uldum it is possible to view the whole zone, good luck doing that on Tatooine.
I see nothing wrong with the current system, it just seems more personal.
Even on a Full server I have yet to see a member of the opposite fraction, I suppose plot crossovers would fix it, but I'm not a developer.
Even on PvE servers this is a big No.
It is very frustrating to be in a questing hub and trying to hand-in/ accept quests between NPC slaughters.
The "rally to expel the invaders" almost never happens, instead the hub is occupied for a few hours until the invaders get board and leave. For those with little time to play this can really spoil their gaming experience.
The default UI is nothing special, but the customization with mods is great.
Bioware has pointed out mods will be in the future,
I'm hoping for mods like Align. Aura Frames, Cellular, Dominos, Masque & Stuf Unit Frames. BUT even giving a LOTRO style of modding would be nice.
I haven't done enough crafting in StarWars yet so I dont know if is suffers from the same problems but the things I don't like about crafting in most games are:
you need to gather materials form the next level zone to craft your gear. (example; level 15gear is crafted with materials from a level 24 zone. by the time you can wear a full set the first item you could equip is out of date. Crafted gear is inferior to dungeon & pvp gear of the same guilty & level
I never played Rift, but a feature like the random quests in Red Dead Redemption would be cool.