Actually, the "wellfare epics" as you put them are precisely why I don't raid until the last tier of content has come out. When Cataclysm first launched, people asked why I wasn't raiding since I had all the best non-raid gear. Told them it wasn't worth the time, I'd just go work on alts. Then came the Zuls and within one raid lockout I had decked out in full 353's, almost as good as the months people had spent in raids. Then came Firelands, and they asked me why I wasn't raiding. Still not worth the time. Then the Twilights came out with gear every bit as good as normal mode Firelands.

Now that Dragon Soul is out, I'm raiding, and quite happy with my decision. The early raiders have one geared toon, I have six 85's with ilvl 380+ and maxed professions. Now I raid, because I know there isn't going to be a patch in a month or two that would completely invalidate all of the previous effort.

Its sort of sad, really. 2/3rds of the raid content this expansion I haven't even touched, and I have no desire to do so. Maybe one day the weekly raid will be updated to include these raids and I'll have reason to walk into one, but until then, I really don't care. The gear isn't even worth getting for transmog for me.

And yes, for me raiding is all about the gear. I don't care about the "thrill" of getting the boss down, I just want the shinies.