Its the criteria set by the devs when mage tower was introduced and thats how it should stay
I kind of feel like the unlocks for artifact should all be account bound. I think they are afraid of it unlocking on characters it shouldnāt though. Much like how finding one hidden appearance let you unlock tints for the ones you havent.
thenā¦ either wait and see if Bliz does something to make it easier on the account or. use the lvl 70 boost that is sure to come wit the 11.0 pre sales and then knock out 10 wins with end of expansion goodiesā¦ 10 wins isnt that hard, just takes a lot of time forming a group and waiting in a que. 
Thatās part of āhardā.
Iād kinda agree with it being harder in some ways. But overall its probably easier, considering you have a lot of the legenderies and even some covenant abilities baked into the talents. Hell you even got old artifact abilities and tier effects to add on top of that. So you have more to work with overall, than back then. You can use items that give effects from older content, like shadowlands crafted geared with a reagent to give it an addition effect, even some of the newer crafted gear comes with effects. But that all depends on badly you want to maximize on this and you can wear the covenant gear and use their set bonuses, except the Maldraxxus one.