I think flavor/vanity items are the things that should be tied behind rep. like the tigers, and so on. if you make cool items, people will grind for them. like frostsabers or w/e.
if you make enough of these items that people want, people will still do dailies for them. I just think valor gear should be separate entirely. cause if you dont want to do dailies on alts, basically you are using valor on upgrades solely.
why did they change the cata system? regardless of your opinion on the expansion as a whole, getting valor items wasnt a long process with a gate. got 1250vp? you can buy a ring right away. also, JP items were useful and JP was easier to get, but thats another topic. it's a gate (rep) on top of another gate (valor, which has a lower cap this xpac), which seems unneccesary.
I see no reason to gate access to vp items other than forcing people to do dailies. no, you dont need them, but in cata this was a non-issue. you just went to the vendor and spent your valor.