I know the early game is important and all... but honestly if you are judging the PQs by the Tier 1... then you just don't have some VERY important information.
1. There ARE PQ instances (they call them "dungeons"). We played in one, it had 3 wings, each with multiple PQs, each of which was "story-line" based, and were different from the "kill this, pick up this" type. Of course, I am not sure how much more you CAN do in these types of games... its not like "sing this song" is a real option.
2. Even the non-instanced PQs change quite a bit as you move through, and most of that involves ever-increasing story-lines/mechanics for completing them.
3. Do PQs with your guild and forget all the other people... you will have more fun :). Again, this is not very possible in the early game, but I am betting the PQs will become less populated as you level and the world opens up a bit. Guild groups running PQs and SCenarios in between... then hitting some RvR to take a few keeps... that is where this game shines. 4 hours of play time in an evening and you don't sit in ONE DUNGEON the whole time.