uh, as far as i know, these new nm pops will work much in the same way as bcnms. but it's implied it's not instanced, so out in the field somewhere (we'll know more later)
as for the 'your pop, your drop' mentality, that's kind of a player decision and doesn't have anything to do with game mechanics. so i have no idea what the trends are with those. as i don't study/really care about player trends
edit--spelling