But my whole point is that the content SHOULDN'T be pugable, and that their new philosophy is wrong. When it is the loot rewards, and the bragging rights that go with it, that motivate people, why would they even think about doing it on a 'hard mode'?

Imagine two guilds start out on equal footing, gear wise. One guild clears the normal modes every week, going through it in two nights, and, assuming 4 pieces of gear per boss, obtains 52 epics. The second guild works 3 nights a week, but only does hard-modes. They manage to drop an average of 6 bosses per weekly cycle (over a 3 month period). This is 5 epics per boss, or 30 per week. The guild trying for hard modes, thus, is severely handicapping themselves, when compared to the first, more casual guild.

Why should this have to happen? MMO's are primarly based on character comparison and competition, so why should we be forced to handicap ourselves in that aspect if only to maintain the difficulty we have come to accept from both this game and the genre?

Hard-modes are indeed an excuse for more difficult content. Imagine a world (of Warcraft) where every five man instance was Wailing Caverns, except with higher level mobs, and maybe a new boss technique every 10 levels. That is, essentially, what hard-modes are. Why should you have to progress through the 'easy modes', if only have to turn again and wipe on the hard modes? Its not new content, and it almost isn't fun. Speaking from experience, there just isn't the same exhilaration and joy from downing hard modes than whole new bosses from past expansions. MMO"s are all about fun, you say? Well, the hard-cores are losing theirs.

Look, Hard Raid content isn't a mistake. 3 years of wow, and 2 years of an expansion, weren't a mistake. 2 decades of a genre weren't a mistake. The very constituents of the MMORPG genre NEED hard content for their fun, and have had it up until very recently.

Look, I personally liked the philosophy that they had at Wrath's conception; have the 10 man raids be 'easy mode', so casual players can see the content, and have the 25 man HEROIC raids be difficult and drop better gear. This way, the hard-cores can still have their progression and their superiority. But no, I guess too many people didn't like getting less reward for less time.