So gear that we can get in the first week without doing any raid content is worse than gear we won't get for a month? Sounds balanced to me.
Wrists, my bad. That were BiS for half the specs and only beaten by hc for the others.The valor belts? They were nice starting belts but I would blame that more on Blizzard doing shit planning when it came to raid drops (seriously, Rogues got legendary daggers yet had the most weapon options of everyone, including a ranged dagger from the first boss) than valor gear being too good; several classes replaced their valor belt with a normal/heroic piece.
Because gold is no object for anyone at a semi-serious level. The mere obtainability of such versatile and powerful items is enough from professions without you being able to do it in half your slots.So the crafted gear, already not going to be bis due to ilvl issues, will be even more costly to get perfect stats. I really don't see why this is an issue at all for anyone that raids at a semi-serious level.