I don’t quite understand how your play style doesn’t work though and not sure if this is really related to TF/WF.
You are focusing on raiding (it sounds like) and getting toward the item level of that raid and you aren’t putting in extra hours to maximize gear. Is that right? So if you aren’t putting in a bunch of extra hours, is your gear bothering you because you used to do that and you aren’t used to being a lower item level than the others you play with?