Yes it is. Not because of the gating but because missions were suppose to be optional this expansion which is what Blizzard said. I don't mind attunements at all but it shouldn't involve the mission table at all, especially after they said it was optional.
It's not even a fun attunement. The table is boring as fuck, you don't even have to be in the game to mess with it. It should be a fun attunement, like having to do a few dungeons on mythic 4+ or something to unlock it. I don't know, but something other than crappy missions. It's not gameplay and they said it would be optional. Having it as an attunement doesn't make it optional.
I guess it's false though, not sure. Hopefully it is and hopefully they make the attunement a lot more fun/better than follower Facebook missions.