I really only have the WoW experience (I went back to classic two years ago), but that seems fine to me. I’ve leveled characters to 60 just fine without stepping into a dungeon, but I’ve also carried a lot of guildies through all the low- to mid-level dungeons. I look at them as alternate paths.

I do hate it that some class quests require dungeons though - that’s more on keeping with “forced grouping” to me.