Its the rating gates that are the core problem imo, not just the ilvl. At the end of MoP and all of WoD, rating was in no way tied to the amount of power you ultimately had (though rated payers did earn their conquest gear faster). Eventually, everyone could have that gear.
Not so in SL (unless you pony up for a carry).
Probably because the suits have decided that they will make more money as they move the game closer to the pay2win model found in mobile games.
Sure they will lose a lot of us along the way but they know they can recoup those losses and more from the whales.
I pvp’d in MOP. The system was actually decent from what I recall. There was a catch up mechanism so you get your alt to max and then you had 0/21000(estimated) arena points so you can catch up within a week just by spamming arena and winning some.
There was a gear wall but it wasn’t as bad as we have now from my experience.
Me personally, I am sick of the excuses. They knew from past expansions that things like HIGE barriers to entry and rating gates was bad for pvp. They had it working well in Mop and Wod. I don’t know a anyone that thought they needed to “FIX” gearing at that time. Its all for boosters and token sells.
one honor set
one conquest set
The reward for Playing the Game Right™ has always been a gigantic power gap? Missed that.