Re: Why are people so spectacularly bad at playing their classes?
Most of the groups I see are wanting to run GB or GS. That's about it. As for fellowship quests - the general advice is there's enough solo stuff, so skip them.
Unfortunately, this is going to happen in any MMO that's a few years into the game and most folks are level-capped - you simply won't find anyone for the in-between stuff. So going back to most quests being fellowship or even small fellowship is apt to end up with a lot of new folks quitting in frustration and people who've been around for a while dual-boxing or getting a higher-level mate to power-level up their alts.
It is how it is. I know my class. I do NOT know a lot of the instances in game because I haven't had a chance to ever run them. Yes, you can read about them, but that isn't the same thing as actually doing them.
Forced grouping to level at this stage of the game would be suicide for Tubine, and they know it. I like that instances are scalable. But it doesn't seem to make people run them anymore often, either - except GB. And I don't see a way to fix that.
That being the case, I'm glad there's a lot of solo content. I can't imagine tackling a higher mid-level area like Forochel if you had to group for every other quest. Why do you think you never see another soul in Angmar when you're there except the odd 65 finishing off some deeds?
It's a shame in a lot of ways because we have a wonderful game world to play in and a truly compelling story. But most folks will only experience a tiny percentage of it.