Agree with some of the points.
There are some good rep pieces from rep (there are some ilvl 200 pieces) however the unbelieveable gating and super low rep gains makes it so by the time you acquire the necessary rep, you no longer need those items. In this case they should have just brought back rep in instances .. but no ... 100 rep from a wq.
Same goes for professions, by the time you meet the requirements to buy the mark II recipe, you are way over the ilvl it crafts.
As far as transportation, a few minutes on fp is not the end of the world. Same for renown, I get that they wanted a long time "effort" for some cosmetics and that's fine too.