That actually is starting to worry me because it looks like they're setting themselves up to make the same mistakes from a different approach.

Keeping the scale too small is one obvious thing- another is that they may actually be planning to take it TOO slow.
For example, not wanting to have vehicles until the infantry game is well-implemented: the big flaw in that is that, once all the infantry aspects are working smoothly, vehicles will throw a wrench into the system by completely changing how the game is played.
It's like when cloaks were first added to Dust- it completely changed how the game is balanced by throwing new strengths and weaknesses at everything, no matter if they directly involved cloaks or not.

EXCELLENT QUESTION!

I want to see those Minmatar Prison Shivs in my hands.

I was thinking about ways that they could help immerse the player in the universe of EVE and help them feel like they are in a living universe in which stuff is happening all the time. I also think it's important for Nova and EVE players to be aware of each other in the game.

It strikes me that there are plenty of opportunities for an EVE/Nova connection that would help to do this.

For example.

Drifter and Sansha incursions.
PVE matches that occur in the same systems that are currently experiencing incursions in EVE. Completion of these matches goes towards repelling the invasion in both games. A structure appears in EVE that EVE players can interact with to help Nova players. Perhaps EVE players can shoot it to momentarily disrupt the AI within the structure. Perhaps Nova players can blow something up to cause some of the AI in EVE to blow up, or to cause a valuable faction ship to appear, or to weaken a target structure.

Scope new items
The Scope news video that currently appears in EVE's captains quarters could also be used in the quarters of Nova players to expose players to the events in both games.

I have no problem with the notion that "DUST has classes" because each suit does different things. Sure, you could put a cloak of a Sentinel but it isn't going to do you any good and Commando is simply not going to be doing any kind of support without equipment.

But if the classes mean something akin to Titanfall, where it is "hmm, do I want this ability to jump higher, run faster, or run longer?" rather than "I have 5 high slots; what can I do with 'em?", I think that is disappointing.

Now, perhaps Rattati is talking to the press in a way that allows people who have never played DUST or EVE to understand how the 'classes' work without going into fittings. "We have 32 classes from small fast guys to big heavy guys with machine guns" is a lot easier to understand than "well, first you choose your chassis, then you choose your weapon, and then you put in your accessories into each slot that increases your effectiveness of the battle, but only after you have the correct training and you guys are lost now, huh?"

I am still cautiously optimistic but it seems like Rattati is so carefully tiptoeing around this. I have experience from Blizzard's Overwatch that the devs can just not be expecting a question so early into the game.

People were asking "is there going to be a cash shop for buying new Heroes?" because people were afraid that you would have to unlock each one. With a game designed around evolving to the match, having to unlock each Hero puts a huge disadvantage on your team if they don't have the right counters/picks. The leader dev said "we have no plans at the moment for a hero shop, at least not at launch."

People lost their minds because suddenly a game that you pay 40 dollars for doesn't have the content you need to actually play. The devs eventually clarified that "no, we are not selling heroes or maps. That is all included" and explained that the reason for the weird choice of wording is that, simply, "we were not expecting ANYONE to ask us how we were going to go about selling the game. We are barely looking into starting beta and people are already asking us about the store? We were caught off-guard."

We can only wait and see.