Lets list the useless specs for raiding in Vanilla.
Druids - Balance, Feral
Hunters - Survival
Mages - Arcane, Fire in MC and BWL due to resists
Paladins - Prot, Ret
Priests - Disc
Shamans- Elemental, Enhancement
Rogues - Assassination, subtlety
Warlocks - Demonology, affliction
Warriors - Arms
If you were any of the above specs than you were just gimping yourself. Of course some people "did" use these specs, but they were broken compared to the others.
Not to mention warriors were the ONLY tanks in the game. Then blizzard decides it would be fun to throw in a fight requiring 8 tanks (4HM). We should also go back to paladin blessings only lasting 5 minutes and requiring to be single target buffs, that adds "flavor" to the class.
I believe the badly itemized gear is the stupid stuff like warrior plate and rogue leaving having spirit on it....