Eh ilvl go up and rewards. A lot of people I know only play for the rewards. Wow tries to please both groups. So neither is purely happy.
To pretend like the current system is without flaws is silly though. Having to grind two sets so I can heal and DPS for one character just isn’t good.
Eh except the efficient and fast isn’t really for most people man. Just because you play infinite hours and don’t mind sitting in raids. My playtime is limited. I enjoy PvP and PvE. My little PvP time is with a few friends in random BG’s, maybe if I’m lucky some 2s. I have two non arcane/ret characters half geared and it’s kinda unfun.
So again, system is okay, far from perfect.
That’s irrelevant to the point. Other games have tried it and didn’t become massively popular because it was so amazing. Wow does the best at making systems that appeal to everyone. So yes rpg progression is important.