I would like to preface this discussion with the idea that this is a subjective experience. Everyone experiences things differently, has different likes/dislikes, and values different things.
I have been farming old content for transmog and mounts for more than a decade - since around the time it became reasonable to solo older raids. It has occurred where I have run an old raid and gotten what I wanted within a month or two, which is fine. The vast majority, however, I have just had really bad luck.
I’m not here to complain about how drop chance works - it’s fairly simple to understand that 1% or 0.1% does not improve each time I roll the dice. What I want to call out is a lack of progression. Running Icecrown for the 800th time, my hope is long gone, and the sensation I got when I (finally) got Ashes of A’lar wasn’t elation at getting an amazing mount, it was relief that I would never have to take any of my characters through that raid ever again.
It no longer feels like I am working toward a thing, it feels like each week I roll some dice and lament my bad luck. I resent the drops I -do- get, because I no longer enjoy it as an accomplishment. I didn’t “work” for it, I didn’t “earn” it. It was just dropped on my lap after an internal RNG came up with a 0.1 result.
I propose the idea of a system of currency, not unlike our timewalking coins, with corresponding vendors. Depending on what difficulty setting the raid is completed on, you get more or less coins. The vendor could offer the cosmetic items which may be farmed for - mounts, transmog sets, toys, pets - at a cost of the coins in line with a reasonable amount of time investment. The percent chance of the items could remain, as is; this would not impact that system as it isn’t going to be offering only the mount or only the transmog.
For folks concerned about current content and their notion of prestige, particularly as it pertains to, say, the Mythic only mount(s), those could simply be added to the vendor later, or have a price (and corresponding drop rate on that difficulty for the coins) which would make the math line up with giving that window of prestige.
At the end of the day, there’s no bad luck protection for old content, and it feels bad to feel like if I don’t go and run Icecrown each week, I will have missed my chance to roll the die which will never give me Invincible. Why can we not set up some way to make actual progress towards these things?