Was it ever just a “catch-up” raid? Remember back in 2.3, when ZA was released, most guilds hadn’t even cleared tier 5 content let alone Tier 6.
Vashj and Kael were massive blocks for a long time back in the day and ZA was designed to help the guilds stuck on 3/4 and 5/6 tier 5 get over that hurdle. It wasn’t designed for fresh 70s. If I’m wrong please provide me with Blizzard stating that back in Nov 2007 when ZA released.
The “catch-up” gear was 2.4 badge gear which has something like a 140 ilevel and quite a few food pieces and comparable to lower end tier 6.