In some ways your right - the game is considerably more casual - certianly more so than any other mmo I've played. If you want something more hardcore - go back to L2 or EQ.

And they've removed attunements from a lot of these higher end instances.

But I personally haven't set foot in them, and neither has anyone I know who plays the game (and thats over 4 different servers from people I've met at work). So its not casual enough that just anyone can do that content.

I suppose DnT's comment about people getting gear thats equivalent if they're willing to spend enough time. It'd take something like 10-15 full kara clears for my shaman to get all those wonderful items I'd like to have, but only so that I'd be geared enough to actually make a serious application to a guild that is running bt/hyjal. Otherwise I really have no chance since none of them are really willing to step back and gear me up. I don't blame them either. Badge rewards are just a stop-gap answer to a rather complex problem - how to catch up to guilds who have long since passed content.

On the server I play on - Staghelm - the guilds working on Hyjal/BT (or SSC/TK even) seem to be happy and holding together - why? Because they didn't work all day and night to blow through it all in a week.

Blizzard is at fault too - making everything so gear dependant and then doing gear resets every expansion. I have to be honest - when bc came out I was thrilled because I never had time or a chance to run any raid really - and all the stuff I picked up from quests was far superior to anything I could dream up, but then you realize that if this keeps happening there is less incentive to do it all again for the next expansion. Plus it makes all that old content complete obsolete.

Some day I'll lose all my motivation to play this game, but it hasn't happened yet.