Visions were a neat idea but the rewards rate is going to be problematic.
Sadly, Torghast’s system might be about as good as it gets because of that: if you want to have the good gear rewards like visions, then you probably need the limited entry gimmick. Except the limited entry gimmick completely ruined horrific visions really, because of it also being tied to cloak progress.
Problem: You had a strictly limited amount of vessel pixie dust you could farm each week (at least I don’t recall there being any sources that weren’t heavily timegated), and the community expected you to have your cloak as pumped as possible every week, too (otherwise “well, you see, your gear is kinda low …”).
If you failed a vision (which was not too hard to have happen if you were new to them, especially with the timer mechanism, and they could be pretty harsh on some classes, like a lot of such content), you were permanently behind on your cloak.
If you used your vessel to enter a friend’s vision (since EVERYONE in the group had to have one!), unless they were on the same bracket of progress as you were, you would be permanently behind on your cloak. Much, much worse, especially since, as I’ve mentioned previously in other threads on the topic: it basically prevents you from going to what should be the default go-to for help with content - your friends and guild! Instead, it basically turned the whole thing into content tailor-made for carry sellers …