Nope. I stopped raiding after Wraith and what you write is BS.
The person who spends half their time hitting one node after another or kills deer over and over and over and over for leather til they are dreaming about it that night is putting in just as much effort for gear. If you ever farmed something so much that when you sat back it added up to thousands upon thousands then that person deserves to be able to craft something comparable to that level of effort they put in.
The player who is running BGS, arenas relentlessly just to get enough honor or conquest to buy gear is surely doing just as much work as a raider. Stay out of poop-check, healing til nose bleed-check, learned their class and other people’s class-check, had to prep consumables-check, was on a timer-check…the only difference is every fight is different and they lack AI mobs. Timer. LOL. M+ want to use this as the rationale for the best gear. Glad you are FINALLY on a timer. PVP’ers have had that mechanic for years.
WOW seems to peak at around 12-14 million at the beginning of an xpac and it drops to around a million at the end. Raid or die needs to be looked at critically and the best gear going to raiders is something that also needs to be looked at.