Locking out content (ie: farmable mobs, mining nodes, flight paths, any quest that might be orange) so that you have vast areas with nothing in them is not "dynamic and engaging" it's an artificial cockblock specifically designed to slow players down in a way that should have been done with a proper leveling curve, not the stupidly fast curve you have now.
And reverting to BOP crafting mats that require raiding, running heroics is another piss poor way of slowing down players, there was a reason it was reviled.