And there's a reason - it's a natural evolution of reward-centered systems. They tend to demand more and more efficiency, because that supports the goal (the rewards) best.
If they wanted to change that they'd have to shift rewards more towards the journey rather than the destination; but that's very difficult and very expensive to do in a game like an MMO that has high player engagement and long-term content demands.
It's a bit of a hole they dug themselves into. The gear-focused grind is just "what WoW is" at this point, and it's hard to pivot away from it without alienating people. But the consequence is that demands for more streamlining and efficiency tend to only ever increase.