I guess it is simply what you enjoy doing. I enjoyed taking a break from mindless killing every once in a while to sit down and tradeskill or chill out and camp some quest mobs or equipment. Every once in a while, I would even enjoy sitting and medding up my mana for 10 min as it gave me a chance to do other things, like homework for instance, and I still felt like I was getting something accomplished, as virtual as it may be.
The way I see it, I want something to show off to other players. I want to be great, and the way CoH is set up, it doesnt really let me do that. You have a few archtype primary/secondary combos that are unbelievably powerful and as soon as those were found out, everybody played them. There was no way possible for your character be better than character. I blame it on the absence of equipment, because equipment adds variety to characters, it is what makes one character better than any other. With the enhancement system, there is pretty much one great way of making your character, and if you don't gear it towards that, then your character is pretty much garbage, ala DAoC. Again, it might just be a personal preference, but that was the main flaw I found in the game.
For short term gameplay, I don't think MMORPG, I think FPS. However, when I have a ton of time on my hands, I enjoy spending the sometimes 4 or 5 hours to go on a raid, which is not nearly as short in supply as it was back in the day. Maybe whenever City of Villains comes out I might give it a try, as PvP would actually add a purpose to my leveling, but with WoW and EQ2 coming out before then, I very much doubt I will bother.