Enough.
First. No one can predict the future, or live an alternate reality. Let's stop arguing about that. No one knows how long ED will last with our without guilds. Even if it were to die an untimely death, no one can attribute it to the presence or absence of guilds over, for example, and any other facet of the game (it being a tedious unfinished grind fest with rules that change every week -- not that I'm judgemental or anything

)
Also, ED is not EvE, WoW or any other game, and is in no danger of becoming them. The core architecture prevents this. Arguing about merits or detriments of this is another topic altogether, but spending pages arguing about other games is just a red herring.
Let's instead try to keep the discussion grounded in ED. I want guilds. And I want them because the game is horribly boring and tedious as is. I hang out on the forums more than play the game because the forums are where the personalities live, where I recognize people by name, where the conflict and struggles arise, and where meaningful reputations are forged etc. Oh, and were my messages are more certain to arrive to their intended recipients. I also trust players to deliver interesting content and objectives much much more quickly than FD. I desperately want to move this online, but the game is about as antisocial as Dark Souls.