I can’t see the correlation between casuals and Ploot and account bond items. I see ploot benefits both hardcore and casual players in that everyone who participates gets something. I wouldn’t say with minimal effort since you have to be around the area to get drops.
I kind of would argue that account bound items actually hurt casuals because now their friends can’t give them loot or go trade for it. For someone who doesn’t have a lot of time to play the game, they might have liked the option to get it from other folks.
In terms of minimal effort, same can be said of FFA loot. Someone can come in and deck out in MF /Defense gear and just wait for folks to kill stuff and just prepare to click for stuff. In fact, FFA might also go the other extreme, where it punishes folks who contribute to the fight by using range build/characters.