It is my understanding they are shooting for a League of Legends type game, not a City of Heroes or traditional MMO.
Technically a smart move. For one, I heard a lot of complaints form lots of people saying their lack of interest in a DC branded MMO was that they had no interest if they were not able to play the iconic characters. With iconic characters like Superman and Batman around, you had no choice but be a nobody. In CoH, since characters like Statesman are not so iconic, you never feel like a nobody.
Second: With about 32 million active monthly players, League of Legends is, is becoming THE MMO to copy, stripping the crown away from World of Warcraft.
Add to this that the Marvel Universe itself just lends itself perfectly for the action-figure collector model made popular by League of Legends, and it becomes a bit of a no-brainer to go down that path.
Mind you, not justifying the game for anyone here, just justifying the direction. Im sure OTHER players are their target market, not us.