The strongest misconception is that people still think these reps are "required," and, because "everyone" "has to do them" we should be "able to do them any way we please." Daily grinds could certainly be made more palpable, but reducing them to something that you'll "just happen to get through" is out of the question in my book.
Frankly, the Tabard design is a cop-out. It's completely irrelevant to any semblance of faction existence. You might as well give someone an item that says "run X number of dungeons and then we mail you an item."
Likewise, instating some straight-grind faction sounds god-awful. People "tolerated" horrible grinds in the past because they didn't know any better (or maybe they just didn't like to whine as much.) Grinding warbeads was never "fun," it's just that the concept of "tabards" and such was non existent at the time.
I do, however, like the idea of putting in dropped/found items (like the tillers) in ADDITION to daily quests to act as a supplement. If someone feels masochistic so inclined, then they can set out attempting to grind up doing only that.
I also like the idea of tying slivers of rep into dungeons... though I fundamentally dislike how dungeons have degraded into lukewarm pablum at this point. No idea what was wrong with the Cataclysm model, but... I digress.
My perfect rep model would be rep via (relevant and at least semi-thought involving) heroic dungeons, turn-ins, with a main focus on daily quests for rep.