I think the point is that most of the subs are from casuals. As some-one above said the 600K that left was probably an alarm bell for Blizz, hence the casual/"solo" direction. I would love to raid, but cannot afford the time as RL is more important. So that gear should be available somehow or the other - crafting, random world drops whatever. I think every-one strives to get better gear - it's human nature. My entire previous guild stopped playing because they had done every-thing they could do [didn't have the time to raid] to get the best gear, got all the achievements they could without raiding - and that was in the middle of wrath - and then they were bored. There are only so many alts one can grind....

Also, I am a druid [kitty] and it annoys the hell out me that i need to raid to get the "fire" kitty staff. Something like that should be available to all subscribers, not the elite few that have time to raid. Change the stats- make it a huge epic quest chain, whatever. But make it so that non-raiders can get it as well.

I don't have the time to run heroics either - 30-40 minutes wait time, and I have about 60-90 minutes game time? heroics take a lot longer than 60 minutes! Plus dailies for rep grinding etc etc. The loot bags were supposed to cut down on wait times??? never happened on my server....