It's not about pressure. Your not getting it. Even non raiders like to gear up and progress their toons. At some point I will have no choice but to spend valor on rep gear so I had better be farming my dailies because I'm almost at that point. Saying you don't have to do dailies is basically saying you can play at a worse pace then everyone else and the extension is that I may as well not long on.
Talent trees felt FORCED because they were even though in reality you could avoid that 5% dps talent even if EJ gave it to you and your guild would probably still clear the boss. It has nothing to do with hoops and everything to do with perception. The 5% dps talent didn't feel optional even though it was entirely. Just like farming two iccs in wotlk was also optional. Just as logging into the game is entirely optional. However since the alternatives to those decisions SUCK you are forced to take them.