So...what ever happened to, "We don't raid for gear, we raid for the challenge of raiding"?
Guess it was all BS. The development team called your bluff and gave you challenges, and spread the gear around.
Someone having gear strutting around town like a Lite Bright with legs doesn't make me want to strive to be like them. I could see gear with Atlas Loot back in the day, and I can see what I want from the Dungeon Journal today. Hell, I could always look it up on a few websites anyway.
The look I want to "strive for," is just a ctrl-click away.
Transmog further devalues that guy, in that many cool mugs are combinations of things, not just a cookie cutter tier set. I'd go so far to say impressive transmogs are better looking anyway.
If you need to be set apart, up your mog game.
If you want to call everyone who doesn't raid "bad," you can take that elitism and stick it.