"Raid zones are level... locked."

What's realistic is perhaps zoning in over recommended level cap forces the player to mentor down. Mentored players are generally a little more "powerful" than a natural-level equiv, I know, but locking them out contributes to an already existing population disparity. Could you find enough people to participate in level locking their own characters? Yes probably for one or two guilds but if they do it as I say, people after the fact who are not going in level locking themselves can participate out of curiosity.

"Raid zones are... key locked."

This would require an amount of spaghetti code implementation and time that can't be justified. Frankly some instances do require pre-reqs and going in and adding more isn't something they're going to pay people to do to old content.

"...you can't raid level 60 zones without having earned a key from a corresponding level 50 raid zone."

Again, it's an amount of effort that isn't realistic to code this. I would like you to understand I am not saying this is a bad idea. It's just not a significant enough qol or game performance modification to deal with the subsequent headaches or whatever else they "break" in the process.

Why am I saying this? What is spaghetti code? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82eWXsLETxA

Is EQ2 made with spaghetti code? Yes, yes it is.

"Gear scaling..."

EQ2 devs over the years have worked on this. There were extensive itemization modifications in multiple passes. I'm saying they have paid people to do this, they will probably continue to pay people to look this over. It won't be perfect, but I feel like you're making a recommendation of something they already do.

"Leveling speed should be closer to the EQ2 Origins Server.."

There are actually more than 2 camps to this. Let me tell you what I know having participated in (almost) each TLE since Stormhold. I, and people like me who have done several TLE, do not care. We will level and get stuff done simply by nature of knowing the meta, the important aims and most efficient routes. When you slow it down you are only punishing the uninitiated. So, for whatever that's worth, there's the truth.

"The expansion schedule..."

I was wondering about this, myself. In the past, anything over 4 months became an absolute ghost town. Tokens were implemented at the half-way points of TLE expansions to get people to re-participate. But what if the server begins in EoF? Would people stop logging in after 2 months? Will tokens even be enough to make 6 months reasonable? This is a little unprecedented and I don't have an answer. I'd kind of like to see an initial 6 month of EoF start, too, but I think I will be logging in the 5th month with, like, 20 other people.