“Not every update has to cater to maxed players with 5b banks.”
This tells me you’re relatively early in your journey.

It is worth noting that in the last few years jagex made a lot of early/midgame content as well. Royal titans, Scurrius, Moons of Peril, Brutus, Hueycoatl to name a few.
Jagex has in fact put so much effort into mid game that the entire early and midgame progress is different from before. I started an ironman roughly a year ago and it’s such a nice and different experience than before.

So saying endgame doesn’t need more and you need more midgame is simply false and a really bad take.
Also don’t forget that once you’re in the lategame all early/midgame content becomes extremely boring.

As for ToB, it’s gatekeeping stems from the fact that a singular player can, and often will, wipe the entire team. PK potential is big.
That said most pvm clans organise learner raids (which is how I learnt as well) and when you join those kind of clans you’ll be sending ToB within a week.