ICC would have been much better if they had incorporated the 5 mans into the actual raid. At least then it would have been more interesting to look at.
I don't really care for 5 mans at all at this point. I get to 90 and have a blast doing them for the first couple weeks, at that point they just become part of a daily routine in getting VP. This expansion they just removed the need to do 5 mans for VP and expanded it to like several different things. You can do rare spawns for VP, dailies for VP, scenarios for VP, LFR for VP or you can just stick with dungeons for VP.
Just because scenarios and dailies are unattractive to you and they offer VP doesn't mean they are more efficient to do. The daily heroic is worth like 16 quests of dailies, meaning you can easily do a heroic before someone finishes that many quests.
I don't see the problem overall. I liked 5 mans being introduced but it felt awfully fucking awkward for old content to be suddenly obsolete by a couple new 5 mans being introduced. I think the current LFR approach, old charm, dailies, scenarios, dungeons and VP approach a way better way to get people up to snuff without getting rid of the previous tier. Previous tier is also easier and is an excellent source of gear/VP.
Launch scenarios were indeed shit but the new ones are actually quite good. From a story telling perspective they are better than any of the 5 mans I've ever done and I've been playing since launch.
Some might see it as lazy to omit 5 mans after launch but I just don't see it. This expansion has had way more content than any expansion I've seen at a rapid pace. In the first 6 months we got what:
5.1
-New scenarios
-Krasarang completely fleshed out, with new story advances
-Catch up mechanisms
5.2
-New 10/25 raid with 13 bosses
-Two new world bosses
-New scenarios
-Rare spawns being added
-Two new areas for different purposes
I liked Firelands in Cataclysm and I thought that patch was pretty good but really in the 6 months leading up to the Firelands patch we got redone 5 man instances (one of which barely got touched), Firelands (which was only 7 bosses) and Molten Front. This expansion we didn't get revamped heroics in that time but we got plenty of scenarios, many more game play additions, a much larger raid and just new land to actually play with. It's a world of difference.
If 5 man development time takes away from all of the things listed above than to me at least.. it hurts the game. Taking old dungeons is probably a decent approach if done well. Zul'gurub was a good example, Zul'aman wasn't.