They have build the whole new world around the first tier, if someone enters the game level now for the same time it's 1,000,000 sources of gear for the first tier of the expansion and then almost all of the rest is self-contained in other sections.
That not only made the beginning overwhelming (no wonder they nuked the biggest dailies hub later it was horrifically grindy) but also it makes most of the rest of the game look cheaper in artistic quality compared to the first month.
What about making it simpler and harder, i.e. return to a more 'hard core' way but less plentiful, e.g. have one hugely important faction that is required or you are gated out of the raid (and why not, don't let people raid for a few weeks, to explore the world, right now we were killing bosses the first day of ding, it was too unreal and artificial), instead of all these easy to grind but annoying abundance of factions (let alone they become completely useless after the first tier).