All this talk of needing LFR because "possibly it allowed thousands of players to raid who otherwise would have just logged off...." why can't they just make some interesting things for players that is a gear progression path and nothing to do with raids?
People can't commit to set times, or want to deal with such environment... so create something for them unique instead of just taking existing raids and turning the slider to 1.
Stuff like Brawler's Guild, could have loot as you went along. More personal class quests. Dungeons that mattered. Adventurer style stuff that got you items if you explored a lot.
Why is the only solution raiding? There are a ton of MMO games out there now, just go steal some ideas from them. Seems so short sighted from a company that used to have great ideas.