Of course not. The terminology is just a carry-over from our early days. For instance, I came from the guild 10th in the US to down Kil'Jaeden. I'd say we were pretty hardcore. There is nothing hardcore about this game, you're right. That's probably a big reason why we bled members off consistently from January until now.
Aside from the snarky tone I detected in your post (and my apologies if I'm wrong about that), you make good points. They're pretty much why all the guilds that like to be challenged are gone now, or soon to be.
SWTOR will just end up another F2P title for casual gamers. It might finally turn some profit for BioWare/EA, but from a gamer's standpoint, it's really sad.