Again, if your only motivation in this game is gear, then you will not really have that much fun.
I got my second toon into LFR's without doing dailies. Somehow I think you can manage as well. In fact, my 2nd 90 could do the latter raids before my first, which I used to grind reps. I had to buy crafted gear, do heroics and scenarios, but it was much quicker. Again, if your only motivation is gear and by extention Ilvl, then you are gonna' have a bad time. No offense, but how can you say it isn't about gear when most of your post was centered around gear being motivation? I don't remember anyone in the old days wishing they could rush through content, I just can't understand the attitude.
The reason they added hoops is simple. In Cata, everything was insanely easy. They had laughable heroics added later in the game for the "catch up" thing. The leveling was so simple, you could get to 85 and be in the then new LFR feature from level 1 within days, and even be caught up on many reps. So what happened? People blew through content, maxed out toons, got all the gear from the LAST RAID and most current raid quickly then unsubbed. So they made it take more time.
The worse part of this is the side effect of people just spamming dungeons for rep. People still saw this as a chore, and instead of doing their best they would behave like jackasses, and afk even in dungeons! The plague of that attitude eventually went to LFR as I am sure you noticed. You can pretty much count on 1/5th of your group, whether it being LFR or LFD being afk or useless.
IMO, I prefer it this way. if you want to mindlessly grind reps, you can do it solo. Or like I did, group up and blow through them.
It might be a good idea to think on the Charms for valor thing. Its not a terrible idea, but they are supposed to be something totally extra, not something you SHOULD have, but something you CAN have.
---------- Post added 2013-01-30 at 05:36 PM ----------
They have sold out to appeal to more money. Its really crapping on the genre imo. If you don't like MMO's or the genre, I suggest playing a different game. This would be akin to demanding "gear" in CoD. 'Yo bro, I should earn money for kills, then I can buy gear that would increase various stats on my CoD character!' Its just wrong. You are demanding a whole genre and game change around your needs, your available time, and how you want it. Why not find game better suited to those needs? Do you find a mildly attractive girl/boy and then demand they change their taste in music, style of dress, and what kind of career they would want?