The problem when you make a game F2P is systems need to be designed around annoying players enough to pay. Some games are less annoying than others, but at their core they need to give you a reason to spend money.
So, while F2P games annoy you into spending money, subscription games entertain you so you keep your subscription.
I can't agree with you on the grounds of this very problem. A raid boss is a static entity with a predetermined difficulty and a researchable behavior. The players in a battleground come in various classes, specs, talent setups, experience levels and skill levels. You cannot simply know what a group of 10-to-25 players are going to do in every instance immediately upon entering a match. Feng isn't going to stop in the middle of Phase 2 after he realizes he can easily kill the healers if he focuses on them and then easily finish the rest of the party. A few players from the opposing team may notice a Holy Paladin slightly behind a group of DPS players and see an opening to chain-CC and burst that healer down with a variety of methods not necessarily predictable by your own team.
They aren't rewarding you for "almost being good enough to win." They're rewarding you for nearly matching another group of player's skills but ultimately losing. It's incentive to keep trying when you're on a losing streak.
It would be frustrating to not get at least something out of it, when you're losing.
Involve us in something we can actually impact. Tell us an Alliance story for the Alliance and by the Alliance. We're paladins of Stormwind, agents of SI:7, dwarven mountaineers, draenei vindicators, and so many other things. We are the Alliance.
One thing we're not? Darkspear Revolutionaries.
That's ridiculous. Defeat should have no reward associated with it.