Two core problems are I currently see with Garrisons are:
- people with several max. level characters are abusing the system and stockpiling mats and flooding the market
- leveling followers, gearing and unlocking all blue prints will get old fast. Not to mention that it won't be *necessary* once Raids are released
I have 2 level 100 characters, several others sitting at 90 and I can't see myself doing the Garrison chores on all of them. Don't get me wrong, I'm a hardcore raider and my main got 650+ ilvl from doing a mix of missions (30 level 100 followers, 10 of them 615+, 5 at 655 ilvl), CM dailies, bmah and craftables. I'll be ignoring the Garrison on all future alts, since it'll be easier to straight jump into LFR and higher difficulties. Guild will provide all the flasks and other buff food, like it always does. Same goes for enchants, gems and so on. Guess we farmed like 20 million gold on SoO sell runs, some of us got this amount on their chars due to CM sell runs alone.
Imagine your Garrison would have the size of Admiral Taylor's Garrison, with 5-6 small plots for your characters professions and generally being bigger, like Blizzard planned it to be. I don't know why Blizzard got the idea that every decision should be meaningful and punishing (outpost followers came to my mind). It also sucks that you can't carry over your Garrison (followers, unlocked buildings) into the next expansion - guess they gave up on their major selling point of this expansion midway in development.