re: ratings requirements on S3/S4 gear... you will be able to get a full set of S2 gear without any ratings at all, and it's not all that bad compared to S3/4, considering that the requirements for getting it are so relaxed (lower honor costs, no need to grind if you don't want, etc).

As someone pointed out, pre-BC and the PvP changes, you were at a pretty big disadvantage versus both insanely dedicated PvPers and anyone who raided past Molten Core if you were a casual player. You'd be lucky to get two or three blue PvP pieces and pre-raiding blues didn't compare to epic items from MC and up. S2 and its equivalents are much better for PvP than most PvE items, and give you a chance versus S3/4-geared players.

The reason it gets boring is that the way to get that gear is to run the same battlegrounds we've been running for months or years. New maps would go a long way to helping alleviate that boredom to some degree.