Its not an either or statement. BOTH are true. It only becomes "less" true for those people for whom reaching level 30 is all-consuming, as there are very few equipment combinations that allow you to reach level 30 at this point. But the only activity that requires you to be level 30 is the Hard raid. However there are dozens of equipment combinations that allow you to get to lvl 28...and the vast majority of the end-game content only requires you to be level 28....