Going beyond that, something that many seem to forget: we have likely hundreds, if not thousands, of players who played these expansions on retail, who already grinded for the gear before, many of them multiple times over multiple characters, and who just don't want to go through that again. Who "earned" the gear then, people who got it in retail and here decided to skip it with coins, or people who played with high rates and rushed past a lot of content?
Let's not even talk about people who just get carried by friends or guilds and wouldn't have the gear otherwise...