@stormwalker:
I understand your point, I'd call the issue the Naxxramas problem. The last content in the 'old mode' was the original Naxx, and despite being in one of the cutting-edge horde guilds on Eldre'Thalas we had only just started Naxx. I thought it was crazy, at the time, that they would spend all that time designing and tuning content that was so hard only a vanishingly tiny % of the playerbase would ever see it, particularly just before an expansion.

That was the old model - that there was simply content that was hard to handle. There was no 'heroic' mode to MC or BWL - there didn't have to be. To be toting around loot from those places (even if, like me, you sucked, and the credit properly went entirely to the 35+ guys who kicked butt, got the places down to a farming status, and then generously let nubs like me accompany them...) was huge epeen.

But, Blizz recognized the wasted effort in Naxx, and moved to the normal/heroic model in TBC. Some might say that this was trying to pretend that heroic content was 'additional' content - I'd disagree. Blizz never pretended that heroic content was anything more than something to allow those willing to work a little harder to get better loot.

Of course that was before the 'point' system that allowed people to get near-final-instance quality gear by sheer persistence, which sort of obviated the original point of heroics.

Personally, having seen both systems develop over time, and with the point system in place, now I think it WOULD be time to go back to the original model, where there is simply content that you're not going to see unless you're quite good. There's nothing wrong with having goals that force you to stretch or that you simply can't reach without a further real investment in time, practice, and work. That's what generates the feeling of accomplishment that people are missing.