There are no perfect systems, and time is valuable. Having someone shoot off a GS you can quickly asses how many potential upgrades they may need and the value they bring to the raid.
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The highest DPS class in Era is a warrior, and literally wears the Edgmasters gloves, they’re low level but BiS by a mile…
Nope.
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one or two low GS items will tank an overall GS and make it not a reliable source for blindly gauging a players ability or output alone.
Again. That’s one item.
A warrior with Gressil and THC aint wearing them either. Guess which of the two GS more represents someone wielding those weapons and providing more dps for the raid?
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High item level doesn’t mean its good, sure there are use cases for super high item levels, but its not an indicator to where that character will parse.
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And people will argue parses don’t indicate skill either.
GS is a quick representation of the players gear (obviously). If someone has a lower GS they are more likely to need more upgrades and produce less dps. A quick /inspect can alleviate some of these assumptions.
You can quickly tell if someone is inflating their GS. Regardless, having a higher GS with appropriate gear is a solid thing to know when forming a group.
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gear score is important. how else will I know if my internet pee pee is big enough to a bunch of other dudes?
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Parses at least tell me the player knows what end of the chopper goes into the enemy, and that he knows not to die.
The only thing GS tells me is that idiot isn’t getting an invite to raid
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Your internet 
is what really matters!
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Nah, this isn’t how itemization works in Classic. Speaking from a Warrior point of view (because that’s what I play), there are a bunch of lower iLevel/level requirement items that are either BiS, near-BiS, or last very late into the game and basically replaced much later on.
Lionheart Helm (Crafted, requires level 56)
Savage Gladiator’s Chain (BRD, requires level 52)
Diamond Flask (Quest Reward, requires level 52)
Edgemaster’s Handguards (World Drop, requires level 44)
Boots of Avoidance (World Drop, requires level 40)
Several more, you can look up various BiS lists for Warriors for different roles and phases.
Gear Score only somewhat makes sense in a game like Wrath which has massive power increases each patch and full replacements are put in game that are pretty obtainable. Classic is not like this at all.
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It is though.
Would you do more or less dps if you had full BiS or near it? Guess what happens to your GS the closer you come to attaining your BiS?
BiS is not the same thing as the iLevel of your items added up in Classic.
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I have no clue what you’re trying to say.
A warrior thats properly geared with a GS of 950 will outperform one that is properly geared but with a GS of 650. A quick inspect will tell you more to the gearing if you want to verify that the player is doing what they’re supposed to.
Same goes with parsing. Group composition plays a role in it, someone with bad parses can still be a good player if they’ve only been in horrible groups whereas someone who is mediocre in a carry group can have inflated parses with the efficient kills.
All vetting processes can use more layers. GS may have more layers in Classic then later expansions but that’s not to say it doesn’t have value when building groups.
I would say the GS between 600-800 is vague because of how itemization was in early raids. When players can obtain a GS of 900+ that means the gear is AQ40 or Naxx quality, which is going to start outperforming many of those pieces you mentioned above.
As someone that played a feral during TBCC, Wolfshead was literal permabis through Sunwell for Cat. Not even the stats on CVoS/T6/Sunwell gear could outpace the DPS gain from powershifting.
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I have seen a feral druid with a 4800 gs out perform a hunter with a gs of 5400 in ToGC 25 man. Gearscore dont mean . . . T.
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Would a Tauren 2H fury warrior with Obsidian Edged Blade (iLevel 68) outperform a Tauren warrior with Ashkandi (iLevel 81), assuming all other gear is equivalent?
Would a warrior wearing Lionheart Helm (iLevel 61) outperform a warrior wearing Helm of Wrath (iLevel 71), assuming all other gear is equivalent?
Would a non-orc warrior wearing a blue Goldminer’s Helmet (Level 38) outperform a non-orc warrior wearing Lionheart Helm (iLevel 71), assuming all other gear is equivalent and no Edgemasters?
The answer to all three is yes.
Your example of a 33% higher GS is a strawman. The issue is more when GS is within 10-20%. In that case, you can’t make a determination based on GS because itemization is key. You can have a great gear score, but that doesn’t mean crap if you don’t have 6% hit and + 5 weapon skill.
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Yes, but you would assume players have their minimums. If that’s the case, the higher GS will perform better.
Nothing will or should be the sole determinant if you’re inviting a player or not, but saying GS has no value when it clearly does is wrong.
Logs would say so much more about the above scenario versus the difference in overall GS. Cause again, it’s 1 or maybe 2 low level items a player is wearing.
Pretty much this kind of thing.
I see what you are going for, but Classic gearing is more nuanced than Gear Score can account for unless you come up with a new system.
Several classes have role specific gear sets. The entire game knows a super geared up DPS Warrior is going to be top DPS, although their “Gear Score” might be lower than that of a pure DPS like a full Naxx geared Combat Rogue for example.
In wrath you can say something like 5K Gear Score and that means something no matter what class or role you are talking about. You cannot do this in Classic and have it mean the same thing, it will not.
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You can though. Anyone with a 900+ gs is in AQ40+ gear. Anything below 800 is muddy waters as you should make sure they’re properly geared too, but by the time someone has enough to get 900+ they assumingly have caps.
People will argue with anything. What you’re saying makes sense. Despite gs not being flawless it is still directionally correct.
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