Blizz has admitted that they will slowly nerf stuff. They want the old(er) content to not be a huge drag on your time. They want you to be spending time in the new dungeons/instances anyway. The less time you spend messing around in lesser content (5mans) the more time you spend in the raid instances.

While gear is easier to obtain now, realize you are still not going to get the newest/best gear from running 5mans. The quicker someone can get their T8/9 they quicker Blizzard can get that toon into the new content. That is all the new emblem mobel does. Imagine if you could have run Strat/Scholo/BRS for emblems that bought T2 back when Naxx came out. Would it make it easier to get into Naxx so you could see the content? Yes. Infact it would almost allow you to get into Naxx on multiple endgame characters. Again, exactly what Blizzard wants. So, gear does come faster which allows you to do the newest instances, it is not however a charity case to give you the best gear in game. You still have to raid to get that.

As for GS, I wish Blizz would have never made the ilvl visible to the player, or even public knowledge. Simply taking this out would make it so much harder for there to be a universal 'guide' as to what a player can/can't do.

Look at me, I got carried through T9 10-man content with my friends one day and got handed everything I want, my GS is over 9000, I can do anything in game. Oh yeah, I've only been playing for 2 days, got WoW for my 12th birthday. <--- This is what not having GS would prevent. No more unskilled/immature 12 yr olds saying they deserve a spot because of their GS.