Originally Posted by
Nevcairiel
Full linear raid progression isn't really that great of a thing. Active raiding guilds hated running old content to gear up new people. It wasn't entertaining for the veteran players, because they outgeared much of it and knew it like the back of their hand already, and for the new players that needed the gear, it was equally boring because they one-shot everything and still missed out on progression - so it was just a grind.
On top of that, it created a very poacher friendly atmosphere, where the top guilds would actively recruit people from mid-tier guilds after they were geared there, just so they didn't have to gear them themselves. Gear was the most important factor in Vanilla, because the skill required to perform in boss fights was much lower then it might be now to play on a top rank guild.
Catch-up gear solves both of those problems to a degree. You rarely run any old content just to get gear for new people - which really wasn't "fun" anyway. And since gearing people is easy now, you don't have to use mid-tier guilds as gear-factories.
In addition to all that, catch-up gear really doesn't remove the linear progression for people that are actually active players. If you don't take a break, then catch-up gear or mechanics really do not affect you at all. Its not strictly "required" to do this linear progression, but if you are playing the game you'll do it anyway.
If I finished the previous tier, then I'll start fully geared into the next tier already. Catch-up will not change that.
I think the reward system in raids and M+ could use some tuning, but at least for me as an active player, catch-up is really not a problem. And as a raid leader, I welcome it, so we get more immediately raid-ready people, which often are people that returned from a break, or other such circumstances.
If all you ever did raid for is the gear itself, you should really ask yourself why you raid in the first place, because at that point its just an endless treadmill. You collect gear to raid, you raid to collect gear. Repeat. I raid to have fun, and I collect gear to have more fun, since being successfull is more fun then failing. In the same vein, I actually want to progress through a raid because thats whats enjoyable to me, hence playing actively from day one, improving gear and knowledge of the raid over time and getting better at it - instead of just blasting through it weeks/months later with no effort. No wonder people get bored if they raid like that.