You only needed badges to buy tier gear at T9 and T10, the rest were quite literally tokens.
And the reps sure did, but the ones that had REQUIRED rep shoulder and helmet enchants gave them to you at very early tiers of rep AND they let you grind them at your own leisure.
I think BfA has really fucked with your mind, like really screwed it the fuck up - I highly doubt you've done anything worth it in BfA anyway other than "got cool xmog" lmfao
Oh look
Tier 8 not needing badges?! BUT FELPLAGUE, I THOUGHT I NEEDED BADGES FOR TIER GEAR?!?1