I personally was pleased with the announcment of the lottery system. I was certain the presale would sell out in the first minutes. Now at least it will be a fair system of who can get in. It would have been sad to miss out just because the node you were using wasn't working at that time.
You are right that there are a lot of unknowns when it comes to the release of the land. It will certainly be interesting to see what it does for the game.