It would be nice if the "quick chat" allowed you to respond to the last person who sent you a message. Or at least a separate key to do so: "chat target" and "chat last" or something.
So do we know if area chat is happening, I've got a custom group by chatting to one player at a time to try and form a squad to go pirate hunting would take too long, area chat would allow us to invite people into a group and do sorties together.