It’s existed basically once in the entire games history, and it was under Ion, so it’s both his fault it was added and removed?
No great transmog rewards necessarily, but the massive expansion beyond “raid or die” all happened in the Ion era despite your hate for him (mythic+, mage tower, visions, delves, death of chromie, megadungeons, a large focus on outdoor content, etc.). Even solo rated PvP. Same with massive alt friendliness, account wide transmog learning, and a ton of other aspects.
I feel like your hate that mythic raids are too hard so people can’t pug them for their gear easily kind of puts the blinders on.