First off, let me just say it took you long enough to finally get to a point.
Here is the thing: You can have both a place to chat and a place for game mechanic discussion in one forum. If people are making too many useless and stupid chat threads then you moderate them. You only need 2-3 chat-like threads ever! The rest should be news threads and "game mechanic discussion." So what would make Aion forum good is not an Advanced section, but moderation. As in moderation of stupidity. Blue Gartr wasn't very friendly at all mind you. Many people see this as a reason why it was good. You can't cite Blue Gartr as an example of your formula. If anything it proves you wrong. (Also Classic Blue Gartr had a lot of shit mixed in too like allakhazam, only it was entertaining shit: drama.)