Why skilled player got so mad about casual getting better loot?

[Tadkins]

If I understand right, he really isn't asking for much

All I'm asking for is to be able to reach a gear level where I won't be total food to everyone I met in warmode and in a random battleground. 200 gear would get me ripped apart by a 226 as it stands from what I hear, and I'd probably get yelled at by my own faction for taking up a slot in that case too.

If it were like BC through (I think) WoD, with the 200 gear having a special stat on it that protected me from 226 PvE champions, I'd be totally fine with that too. Or at the very least put my 200 geared self in a battleground with other 200 geared folks.

[arkanon]

If I understand right, he really isn't asking for much, unlike the OP who seemed to want 226 from doing WQs(). If I remember my badges and costs right, it took 30 days of doing random heroics EVERY DAY without fail to buy ONE piece of 251 baseline T10 from Frost badges, assuming it cost 60 Frost badges, and that wasn't even the really good pieces. There were 264 offpieces as well that cost about the same, but the trinkets generally sucked compared to raid drops. While a raider would have cleared ICC on 2 difficulties, 10 man and 25 man, 12 bosses, 2 badges from each boss, so 48 Frost badges a week plus those from daily heroics, making a raider get 62 Frost badges from one WEEK of ICC and random heroics, another 5(???) if you do the "X must die!" weekly raid quest. There was another 2-5 Frost or something small from a quest inside ICC itself.

On top of that, the raider would have killed 24 bosses in that week, likely minimum 12 and up to 24 with relevant loot (10H/25N/25H). So in the WotLK model, there is still a large gap between a super casual and a hardcore/group using but competent raider. And in the 5 mans in ICC patch, you could buy a Battered Hilt with gold and get a 251 weapon from semi-solo play, though some parts of the chain required a dungeon group to complete.

And to be clear - multiple times in this thread alone I have said I want solo players to have something to work towards, and I think the covenant armor was poorly implemented. Its EXTREMELY simple and fast to acquire, but more than that, it was beyond a joke to upgrade straight to 197 - rather than simple currency upgrades I would have liked to see it linked to quest chains or certain activities that a solo player can complete, requiring more effort and time, but in theory, feeling a little more rewarding than "oh yeah, im renown 30 now - might as well right click 25 times to get my full set of 197 armor!".

And to your other points regarding how "easy and fast" it was for "solo" players to gear up, there seems to be a serious case of rose tinted glasses going on with a LOT of people - something you are immune to, it would seem. People seem to "remember" spending a couple of weeks causally queuing for easy heroics and getting a full set of max level raid gear - this was never the case, and was never further from the truth than the first patch of an expansion.

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All I'm asking for is to be able to reach a gear level where I won't be total food to everyone I met in warmode and in a random battleground. 200 gear would get me ripped apart by a 226 as it stands from what I hear, and I'd probably get yelled at by my own faction for taking up a slot in that case too.

If it were like BC through (I think) MoP, with the 200 gear having a special stat on it that protected me from 226 PvE champions, I'd be totally fine with that too. Or at the very least put my 200 geared self in a battleground with other 200 geared folks.

No, you are wrong again - you are looking at this all wrong - first, no one is going to be angry at you for "taking up a slot" - this just isnt based in reality at all. You will stand EXACTLY the same chance against a 226 now as you would have with resil, because the 226 would have substantially more resil than you anyway - this is something you keep ignoring. And currently, if you face a purely pve geared character and you are purely pvp geared, you will have substantially more Vers than they will.

This stuff you talk about just isnt based in reality, and you would know that if you stopped desperately trying to find the negatives in things and just played the game, or opened your mind a little and read some of the substantial feedback in this thread telling you its fine, youll be fine, nothing has changed.

You have ALWAYS faced more geared characters in BGs - nothing has changed.
Raiders have ALWAYS had superior gear to non raiders - nothing has changed.

You seem to have this wierd fantasy where 226 geared characters are queuing for random bgs en masse to flex all over everyone - and that a solo 226 will dominate an entire bg and there is nothing anyone can do about it - this is absolutely not the case. You say you wont stand a chance in a 1v1 against a BiS geared player - no, probably not, but that has always been the case, and always will be. Thankfully, Blizzard do not balance their game around 1v1, and 1v1 encounters are not very common in BGs. Interestingly, the only time they DO occur is when you are off by yourself, which usually means 1 of 2 things - you are doing something you shouldnt be, and are not really helping your team at all, or you have been jumped while traveling from node to node - this has always happened.

We keep telling you your fears are not based in reality, and that even i have a blast on my sad little 165 warrior in random bgs - its absolutely fine.

[Dazmalak]

And to be clear - multiple times in this thread alone I have said I want solo players to have something to work towards, and I think the covenant armor was poorly implemented. Its EXTREMELY simple and fast to acquire, but more than that, it was beyond a joke to upgrade straight to 197 - rather than simple currency upgrades I would have liked to see it linked to quest chains or certain activities that a solo player can complete, requiring more effort and time, but in theory, feeling a little more rewarding than "oh yeah, im renown 30 now - might as well right click 25 times to get my full set of 197 armor!".

And to your other points regarding how "easy and fast" it was for "solo" players to gear up, there seems to be a serious case of rose tinted glasses going on with a LOT of people - something you are immune to, it would seem. People seem to "remember" spending a couple of weeks causally queuing for easy heroics and getting a full set of max level raid gear - this was never the case, and was never further from the truth than the first patch of an expansion.

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No, you are wrong again - you are looking at this all wrong - first, no one is going to be angry at you for "taking up a slot" - this just isnt based in reality at all. You will stand EXACTLY the same chance against a 226 now as you would have with resil, because the 226 would have substantially more resil than you anyway - this is something you keep ignoring. And currently, if you face a purely pve geared character and you are purely pvp geared, you will have substantially more Vers than they will.

This stuff you talk about just isnt based in reality, and you would know that if you stopped desperately trying to find the negatives in things and just played the game, or opened your mind a little and read some of the substantial feedback in this thread telling you its fine, youll be fine, nothing has changed.

You have ALWAYS faced more geared characters in BGs - nothing has changed.
Raiders have ALWAYS had superior gear to non raiders - nothing has changed.

You seem to have this wierd fantasy where 226 geared characters are queuing for random bgs en masse to flex all over everyone - and that a solo 226 will dominate an entire bg and there is nothing anyone can do about it - this is absolutely not the case. You say you wont stand a chance in a 1v1 against a BiS geared player - no, probably not, but that has always been the case, and always will be. Thankfully, Blizzard do not balance their game around 1v1, and 1v1 encounters are not very common in BGs. Interestingly, the only time they DO occur is when you are off by yourself, which usually means 1 of 2 things - you are doing something you shouldnt be, and are not really helping your team at all, or you have been jumped while traveling from node to node - this has always happened.

We keep telling you your fears are not based in reality, and that even i have a blast on my sad little 165 warrior in random bgs - its absolutely fine.

I get what you're saying, but you seem to be missing the point that while gear should reflect skill and level of difficulty, there are too many difficulties and too much disparity between the ilvls. 200 gear is totally fine for a casual, hell, maybe it's even above what they should have. I can even agree with your opinion it's too easy to obtain from covenants, meaning they hit their "cap" faster and have nothing strive towards for any duration of the game. All that said, I think either normal or heroic raids should be removed (or merged together for a medium difficulty), LFR should be mog gear only, and that mythic gear, rated PvP gear, and mythic+ gear should cap out at a lower ilvl as well. Instead of having 20+ ilvl swings between players, you have 10-15. A notable difference in performance, but a less severe variance all the same. I point to BC/Wrath eras of gearing up in both PvE and PvP. Casuals had ways of keeping up (though it was a much greater time sink, which is probably a good thing if they want people playing towards a goal) without ever threatening to overshadow raiders or pvpers. Jumping in a bg with honor gear vs arena gear wasn't *as* much of a pain because the ilvls were less than 15 apart from blues to purps, or season 1 to season 2, etc. Going from Karazhan to Gruuls or SSC wasn't some massive swing in gear levels. Hell, the current model for a single tier covering 45 ilvls worth of gear is the reason why "old content" (meaning raids that aren't current in a patch's lifecycle) are abandoned.

On a side note, I do believe I am done with WoW until something changes in the lore. I'm a roleplayer and get into the story and world building (PvP being my go-to game mode for WoW at least) and the last several expansions have slowly killed my love for the game with SL being the nail in the coffin.

[arkanon]

I get what you're saying, but you seem to be missing the point that while gear should reflect skill and level of difficulty, there are too many difficulties and too much disparity between the ilvls. 200 gear is totally fine for a casual, hell, maybe it's even above what they should have. I can even agree with your opinion it's too easy to obtain from covenants, meaning they hit their "cap" faster and have nothing strive towards for any duration of the game. All that said, I think either normal or heroic raids should be removed (or merged together for a medium difficulty), LFR should be mog gear only, and that mythic gear, rated PvP gear, and mythic+ gear should cap out at a lower ilvl as well. Instead of having 20+ ilvl swings between players, you have 10-15. A notable difference in performance, but a less severe variance all the same. I point to BC/Wrath eras of gearing up in both PvE and PvP. Casuals had ways of keeping up (though it was a much greater time sink, which is probably a good thing if they want people playing towards a goal) without ever threatening to overshadow raiders or pvpers. Jumping in a bg with honor gear vs arena gear wasn't *as* much of a pain because the ilvls were less than 15 apart from blues to purps, or season 1 to season 2, etc. Going from Karazhan to Gruuls or SSC wasn't some massive swing in gear levels. Hell, the current model for a single tier covering 45 ilvls worth of gear is the reason why "old content" (meaning raids that aren't current in a patch's lifecycle) are abandoned.

On a side note, I do believe I am done with WoW until something changes in the lore. I'm a roleplayer and get into the story and world building (PvP being my go-to game mode for WoW at least) and the last several expansions have slowly killed my love for the game with SL being the nail in the coffin.

I dont disagree that they should look into the number of difficulties - and would agree that a merging of normal and heroic is the "logical" way to go. I say that because mythic raiders, loot aside, seem happy with the difficulty of "their" content. My concern is if you merge heroic and normal, the only logical way to do the difficulty is to make it mostly the same as normal, with the last few bosses being equivalent to heroic. I say that because making it all the same as heroic would alienate all normal mode raiders, and I believe an overall reduction in difficulty would be viewed more positively, especially since mythic exists. If made harder, i dont see a lot of normal mode raiding guilds saying "oh well, I guess we just do LFR now", while i could see some heroic raiders saying "lets try this new difficulty out, and if its too easy, maybe its time we stepped into mythic".

I have said the same about dungeons as well, with heroic being entirely obsolete. Basically remove heroic entirely, and rename M+0 to Heroic - seems logical to me, i honestly believe anyone who can clear a heroic can clear a mythic0

[Dazmalak]

I dont disagree that they should look into the number of difficulties - and would agree that a merging of normal and heroic is the "logical" way to go. I say that because mythic raiders, loot aside, seem happy with the difficulty of "their" content. My concern is if you merge heroic and normal, the only logical way to do the difficulty is to make it mostly the same as normal, with the last few bosses being equivalent to heroic. I say that because making it all the same as heroic would alienate all normal mode raiders, and I believe an overall reduction in difficulty would be viewed more positively, especially since mythic exists. If made harder, i dont see a lot of normal mode raiding guilds saying "oh well, I guess we just do LFR now", while i could see some heroic raiders saying "lets try this new difficulty out, and if its too easy, maybe its time we stepped into mythic".

I have said the same about dungeons as well, with heroic being entirely obsolete. Basically remove heroic entirely, and rename M+0 to Heroic - seems logical to me, i honestly believe anyone who can clear a heroic can clear a mythic0

Yeah, agreed on the dungeons as well. Heroic is hardly different from normal as it stands anyway.

I wonder if a system for mythic+ that could work is having the bosses drop or have a completion reward that gives you essentially an ilvl booster for any dungeon gear you own that reflects the key you ran. Mythic+4 nets you a 4ilvl boost token, mythic+10 nets you a 10 ilvl boost token , etc. I could be wrong, but it could be an incentive to always run base level "mythic" (as you described it replacing heroic) for people to collect the gear, then move on to mythic+ to upgrade it. Idk, just a thought. May require limiting runs or offering incentives to do anything other than the "easy" or "fastest" run over and over.

In regards to raids, I think the old style of "easy bosses first that gradually ramp up in challenge" worked well enough. Nothing is perfect, but I would take it over what we currently have.

[Frozenbro]

Or the handful of casuals that were still subscribed remembered that FFXIV existed and jumped ship. There's a reason that FFXIV subs have increased by ~150% since Shadowlands launched even though the game is in a lull between expansions, that place is casual heaven and elitist minmaxers can gtfo. The exact opposite of WoW.

And im supposed to be offended by that? xd not even a nice try, have fun in FFXIV for all i care, your titanforging isnt coming back as your gearing god.

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No, you are wrong again - you are looking at this all wrong - first, no one is going to be angry at you for "taking up a slot" - this just isnt based in reality at all.

Hes not gonna answer to you, this thread is his victim play heaven, notice how he only answers the people that agree with him xd even though he continues spouting lies and missinfo based on his nonexistant experience since he doesnt even play the game, but people continue to be baited by his "oh i cant play the game im just sitting on the graveyard in random bgs" yeah the imaginary graveyard in his head maybe, im sure in the bgs that happen in his head he faces full teams of 226 ilvl people while hes 190 imagination is strong after all.

[ippollite]

I think the idea is for rewards to match the difficulty and barring RBGs you can argue it has never been closer to that. The issue now seems to be with drop rates rather then actual power items offer.

Making a weird argument that the games progression system should be busted because you do a lot of world quests doesn't make sense to me. A mythic 15 takes the same amount or close to the same amount of time as a mythic 0. If people honestly cared about making the game more casual this thread would be tearing to blizzard about time gating legendary items and conduit upgrades.

I swear to god yesterday you quoted a completely different post. I think i must be going mad?

Okay, then i can address this more accurately (instead of getting uppity about the word 'busted'.).

First up, the obvious aim here is to open up access to systems rather than dramatically alter the reward structure within them. Perhaps the great vault opening up to honor and callings is a bit much, but it really should be opened up to TC. It has a stated (by blizzard) gear expectation level. This implies a base difficulty level. As such it should offer rewards in keeping with that challenge. Plus, wouldnt it be nice having more people using the great vault and getting stoked to see whats in it each week? The great vault might be THE defining progression system in this expansion. Arguably you'd want as many of your playerbase engaging with it as possible.

As for the rest, as i say, the point is access. Its not replacement or nerfing the current progression system or challenges. Just take valor for example. Why not look for ways to give players a base item (however its done - tc drops? put it on venari's list of stygia items (now we can encourage players to bother with the maw), drops from callings...). THEN let players decide how they want to farm the currency for it. If they choose the absolute worst and slowest way to gain valor, (callings), then hey, thats on them. Not to mention they're kinda scuppered by HAVING to do mythic plus if they want to upgrade it beyond 200ilvl. But the point here is that we give them a reason to be invested in the system. At the cost of a "free" 184ilvl (13 ilvls below their current gear) upgradeable mythic piece of gear they have a reason to care about valor. They also have a reason to think... hmmm... maybe i could get keystone conqueror? Because they kinda want to upgrade those items just a bit more.

All we did in this example is give them a reason to participate in the system by flipping the rewards around (a base item with the potential for upgrades vs a valor drop). We havent broken any current progression systems. We've just made it more attractive. Indeed, it could be argued that by tying these to stygia or twisting corridors (for example) we've also helped improve the integration of the various systems in game and given players more reasons to engage with them.

[arkanon]

I swear to god yesterday you quoted a completely different post. I think i must be going mad?

Okay, then i can address this more accurately (instead of getting uppity about the word 'busted'.).

First up, the obvious aim here is to open up access to systems rather than dramatically alter the reward structure within them. Perhaps the great vault opening up to honor and callings is a bit much, but it really should be opened up to TC. It has a stated (by blizzard) gear expectation level. This implies a base difficulty level. As such it should offer rewards in keeping with that challenge. Plus, wouldnt it be nice having more people using the great vault and getting stoked to see whats in it each week? The great vault might be THE defining progression system in this expansion. Arguably you'd want as many of your playerbase engaging with it as possible.

As for the rest, as i say, the point is access. Its not replacement or nerfing the current progression system or challenges. Just take valor for example. Why not look for ways to give players a base item (however its done - tc drops? put it on venari's list of stygia items (now we can encourage players to bother with the maw), drops from callings...). THEN let players decide how they want to farm the currency for it. If they choose the absolute worst and slowest way to gain valor, (callings), then hey, thats on them. Not to mention they're kinda scuppered by HAVING to do mythic plus if they want to upgrade it beyond 200ilvl. But the point here is that we give them a reason to be invested in the system. At the cost of a "free" 184ilvl (13 ilvls below their current gear) upgradeable mythic piece of gear they have a reason to care about valor. They also have a reason to think... hmmm... maybe i could get keystone conqueror? Because they kinda want to upgrade those items just a bit more.

All we did in this example is give them a reason to participate in the system by flipping the rewards around (a base item with the potential for upgrades vs a valor drop requiring players enter mythic dungeons and the LFG system to find the items to make it relevant). We havent broken any current progression systems. We've just made it more attractive (and also, lets say with throwing them on venari or in twisting corridors, sorely added rewards to one or both of these making both torghast and the maw attractive to a wider playerbase and/or alts). In fact, we've kind of improved the integration of the various systems.

Just to be clear - in your suggested system, the player would still be required to do M+ to upgrade the item beyond the current ilvl "cap"? Because thats exactly what the complainants do NOT want. - maybe i am misinterpreting something here, its an awful lot of words.

[Lost controller]

I swear to god yesterday you quoted a completely different post. I think i must be going mad?

Okay, then i can address this more accurately (instead of getting uppity about the word 'busted'.).

First up, the obvious aim here is to open up access to systems rather than dramatically alter the reward structure within them. Perhaps the great vault opening up to honor and callings is a bit much, but it really should be opened up to TC. It has a stated (by blizzard) gear expectation level. This implies a base difficulty level. As such it should offer rewards in keeping with that challenge. Plus, wouldnt it be nice having more people using the great vault and getting stoked to see whats in it each week? The great vault might be THE defining progression system in this expansion. Arguably you'd want as many of your playerbase engaging with it as possible.

As for the rest, as i say, the point is access. Its not replacement or nerfing the current progression system or challenges. Just take valor for example. Why not look for ways to give players a base item (however its done - tc drops? put it on venari's list of stygia items (now we can encourage players to bother with the maw), drops from callings...). THEN let players decide how they want to farm the currency for it. If they choose the absolute worst and slowest way to gain valor, (callings), then hey, thats on them. Not to mention they're kinda scuppered by HAVING to do mythic plus if they want to upgrade it beyond 200ilvl. But the point here is that we give them a reason to be invested in the system. At the cost of a "free" 184ilvl (13 ilvls below their current gear) upgradeable mythic piece of gear they have a reason to care about valor. They also have a reason to think... hmmm... maybe i could get keystone conqueror? Because they kinda want to upgrade those items just a bit more.

All we did in this example is give them a reason to participate in the system by flipping the rewards around (a base item with the potential for upgrades vs a valor drop). We havent broken any current progression systems. We've just made it more attractive. Indeed, it could be argued that by tying these to stygia or twisting corridors (for example) we've also helped improve the integration of the various systems in game and given players more reasons to engage with them.

I would rather the great vault be trashed myself. Its a time gate system that over rewards players as it. I would rather gut all of these systems and let drops be drops. When they are ready they can climb the ladder.

[ippollite]

Yes. IF they want the upgrade to go beyond the 200ilvl as the current system exists. Honestly, i cant see why it couldnt go to 207, but lets be honest... a base 184 ilvl, 50 valor from epic callings and 20 from rare callings... with 250-1000 valor required per ilvl upgrade... Whats that? 5 upgrades? 1250 valor - 5000 valor on one item to go from 184 to 200...

And aprox 200 valor per week from callings alone... With about ten to twelve weeks left before the next patch and the invariable reset? So 2400 valor if you run only callings? Thats maybe 1 piece upgraded to 200 in that time. So even if it opened to 226 it wouldnt matter. The valor is only there if you enter mythic dungeons on the regular.

[Glorious Leader]

Because 1) it was the final patch so getting Mythic gear out of solo content wasn't that big a deal, 2) Visions were heavily timegated in practice so you couldn't get 5 masks run week 1, unlike say Twisted Corridors that were trashed week 1 by good players, 3) that came in a later small patch anyway, not 8.3 itself, 4) it wasn't every slot, it was for about 6-7 slots if memory serves and finally 5) and most importantly, in that patch ilvl was a lot less important than what Corruption you had on the gear, so getting a Mythic piece that had a poor Corruption didn't help you much and most had a poor stat spread. That's why it caused little uproar, whereas Benthic gear being BiS for Eternal Palace and being only obtainable via open world grinding rubbed a lot of people the wrong way.

It rubbed try hards the wrong way. Everybody else was progressing their characters. Should note that while those try hards represented a minority of players they still do the content anyway. Its ludicrous to risk alienating everybody else to appease these people who complained but did the content anyway.

[Luxeley]

Skill really isn't much of a factor despite popular belief. It basically comes down to class knowledge, content knowledge, and experience. The perception of this is often distorted because the combination of the aforementioned definition of Xp and gear trumps all.

[Tadkins]

Skill really isn't much of a factor despite popular belief. It basically comes down to class knowledge, content knowledge, and experience. The perception of this is often distorted because the combination of the aforementioned definition of Xp and gear trumps all.

I'd say that's a skill in itself, to be able to memorize every trash pull and every mechanic of every dungeon, and apply the appropriate tricks and CCs and interrupts at the right times, all while clicking all of your own buttons in precisely the right order while monitoring all of your procs and cooldowns.

When putting all of that together it is definitely overwhelming and something I have a hard time managing anyway.

[Jackstraw]

I'd say that's a skill in itself, to be able to memorize every trash pull and every mechanic of every dungeon, and apply the appropriate tricks and CCs and interrupts at the right times, all while clicking all of your own buttons in precisely the right order while monitoring all of your procs and cooldowns.

When putting all of that together it is definitely overwhelming and something I have a hard time managing anyway.

Same for class skills for any given opponent you can face. You don't expect to press two buttons and win against somebody who holds a leverage against you, do you.

Devs can't cater to all the needs of somebody like you, and excuse me if I'm brunt. But there needs to be at least some willingness to play and interact with the game. Gear won't make all the problems disappear. There will always be challenging content and players, those won't be patched out of a massive multiplayer game.

[ippollite]

I would rather the great vault be trashed myself. Its a time gate system that over rewards players as it. I would rather gut all of these systems and let drops be drops. When they are ready they can climb the ladder.

In total agreement. But it would force a lock down in mythic plus on either the number of drops, the number of run per week, or the comparative ilvl of said drops.
We tried two of the three this expansion and to quote nukes top 5... it did NOT. Go well.

So that realistically leaves either a) lockouts on runs or b) the vault system as it stands. I can see nothing short of a riot in the case of the former. So it looks like this is the future going forward.

[Tadkins]

Same for class skills for any given opponent you can face. You don't expect to press two buttons and win against somebody who holds a leverage against you, do you.

Devs can't cater to all the needs of somebody like you, and excuse me if I'm brunt. But there needs to be at least some willingness to play and interact with the game. Gear won't make all the problems disappear. There will always be challenging content and players, those won't be patched out of a massive multiplayer game.

A 1v1 with someone in the middle of Nazmir was never as overwhelming and stressful as memorizing the entire layout of a dungeon, the roster of mobs you need to interrupt, and the execution. But that is why I struggle with M+ and anyone who doesn't I would say has some skill. That's all I was saying.

I am not that great and I always just tried to stay out of everyone's way and stick to the content I could handle. All I really wish for is that content to matter more, I suppose. I just want to feel like I have a place in the world.

[arkanon]

Skill really isn't much of a factor despite popular belief. It basically comes down to class knowledge, content knowledge, and experience. The perception of this is often distorted because the combination of the aforementioned definition of Xp and gear trumps all.

What really distorts perception is a complete and utter lack of understanding of what "skill" is, because you literally define it yourself. Your comment can be reworded as "its not skill, its SKILL". What do you think skill is exactly?

[Lost controller]

In total agreement. But it would force a lock down in mythic plus on either the number of drops, the number of run per week, or the comparative ilvl of said drops.
We tried two of the three this expansion and to quote nukes top 5... it did NOT. Go well.

So that realistically leaves either a) lockouts on runs or b) the vault system as it stands. I can see nothing short of a riot in the case of the former. So it looks like this is the future going forward.

Why?

I don't really get why more tedium is ever the answer to making content. What possible harm would be done by allowing players to simply gear at a reasonable rate? Is the 16th run of the same dungeon really that unique a go?

This whole mindset of "we need X to last for Y" is harmful to any game.

[ippollite]

Why?

I don't really get why more tedium is ever the answer to making content. What possible harm would be done by allowing players to simply gear at a reasonable rate? Is the 16th run of the same dungeon really that unique a go?

This whole mindset of "we need X to last for Y" is harmful to any game.

Just to be clear, this isnt me advocating this or anything. Its a blizzard red line i suppose. But reasons are likely a) they have an intended patch life cycle (which might actually be 6 months for all we know - this might actually not be 'late'). Think of it like 'timegating' only less delineated and with more rng. If youre looking at the playerbase as a bell curve, the intention is that you want the brunt of players finishing or not quite finishing their gearing process by the time the next patch drops. So, thats the pace theyve set. Gates (drop rates, ilvls, and lockouts) are in place to taper off the variables.
And b) Raiders would throw a gigantic hishtfit. Not only would they be at a huge disadvantage with their one lockout per week versus the infinite spam of mythic (and the drops therein), but they'd also complain about how they feel 'obligated' to have to run that content endlessly... and theyd also complain it'd completely invalidate their progression since any drops from the raid itself would be either a very moderate upgrade to their current +15 gear, or a sidegrade.

To be honest, i think this is why theyre seriously looking again at the idea of gear being tied heavily into the content it drops from. And i think thats due to the success of PVP gear this expansion in upsetting the pve gearing limitations applecart a bit. They mentioned just a bit back that they were looking at making pvp gear lose power in pve content and vice versa. Its an idea thats been swimming around for a while (preach did a video on it about benthic gear affixes relating to nazjatar and not tying into raiding - so, er, 'raiders dont feel obligated' to 'have to do it'). But ive also seen plenty of people on forums advocating this as a means out of the quandry of hitting your cap (brought to light in this expansion in particular) and feeling forced to progress in LFG. Its an idea whose time might have come to be honest.

And if that happens, it would go some way to preventing raiders and mythic dungeon players being at one another's throats about 'difficulty', lockouts, spammability, reward levels, etc. Still, that kinda only resolves part (b).

[darklogrus]

So what ilvl are casuals lobbying for in 9.0.5 anyways? Personally I think sitting at the 200ish ilvl range of Normal CN isn't too bad for non instant content considering you couldn't even make it to LFR's ilvl in the past few expansions.