How will Ulduar and later patches look like?

I will start by saying i didnt play on season 1, and its a bit of a rant.
So, i started to play here thinking the realm will be somewhat boosted, maybe not as much as Lordaeron was in the beginning but still challenging, i was extremely disappointed when i found out 3k groups clear the content with half the raid watching netflix during the encounter.
I understand why it makes sense the raids this patch to not be that boosted, they are unpopular and unrewarding to run multiple times, but i am wondering about future patches, are they also not that hard ? Was there a progression raid on s1 ? Will there be a progression raid in this season ?
Also was/ will there be donation shop on later patches as well ?

Seems to be a common question as of late. I will answer from a perspective of having played full season one. Take into account that this time around some factors will definitely change, so this information is definitely more biased towards how things used to be as opposed to speculation on how they will be this season.

1. No matter how you spin it, tier 7 content is the most accessible to the general public in terms of difficulty. Even recent servers that implemented heroic modes in this tier had their content cleared within a few days. If it feels too easy, that's because it is too easy. Working as intended.

2. Because of the above, Ulduar will be a rude awakening for a LOT of people. T7 lulls people into a false sense of security and people start believing they are good at the game after clearing Naxx. This will 100% not be the case in T8. The good guilds will still tear through it at moderate pace, but it will not be an instant walk over. Even the best guilds will definitely spend a few weeks to get every hard mode down. In reality, most guilds will not even get past 4/9 HM so let this be a testament to things increasing in difficulty. This is also the worst patch to have people catch up on gear as guilds stop raiding Naxx and you really need that gear to do well in Ulduar so people better get their guilds sorted now or pay the price later.

3. ToC is not as hard as Ulduar, but not as easy as Naxx. Normal modes will be cleared by pugs without issues. Most guilds will clear 4/5 HC with Anub being the only bottleneck if people get hellbent on having a block tank sort all their issues. Clearing 5/5 HC here is a very reasonable goal. This tier is short and is more like an ICC waiting room, a means to get to better things.

4. ICC. The best part. Starts off with 0% buff so it is moderately hard week 1. The no life guilds will clear 12/12 HC very quick due to years upon years of experience in ICC. This is by far the most well known and popular raid. For an average guild steady progression is the name of the game. Everything is doable with a combination of increasing ICC buff and wiping to encounters multiple times to learn. For us the only bottlenecks last season was Lady Deathwhisper and, to an extent, Sindragosa on HC.


The shop:

So far, Warmane has made zero changes in how items are released. First came the heirlooms, 2 weeks later came all the 25man gear and in another 2 weeks came the misc items such as mounts, bags and this time scrolls of deception. In Ulduar last season, 10man and 10manHM gear came out pretty quick, maybe 2 weeks into the patch. The 25man and 25manHM gear took quite a while to appear, at least half way through the patch. Same story with ToC, normal mode gear came out very quick, 25man HC gear came out very slow. In ICC patch the ilvl251 gear came out quite late and no ilvl264 items were ever released on the shop, so no 10manHC, 25man or 25manHC gear on the shop. Rest assured, the shop will always exist on FM no matter what and it will not go away.