Valor is now for gear upgrades only.. so it's just like coins in TI.. They clearly don't want players earn currency used to upgrade gear via riding - they want to push them to other content..
At least it's not frog grinding this time around..
This will pretty much just lead to people joining LFR, setting follow and going to the bathroom for valor.
With people raid logging, the thought of pugging mythic dungeons or running alot of heroic dungeons sounds hideous. So, this leaves do LFR or skip doing upgrades. This now comes back to determining if I really care about the rest of the expansion.