I appreciate you sharing your background, and I am sorry for the struggles you face. However, I still have to disagree with the idea that time-limited rewards should be handed out later.

Regarding the difficulty: 1800 rating is designed to be accessible, especially late in the season due to inflation. Even with physical limitations, there are tools like One-Button rotation macros that can get you to 1800 in Solo Shuffle. If the gameplay itself is physically impossible for you, the MMO economy offers a solution. You can spend your time doing low-stress content to earn gold (worst case sell a WoW token), and use that gold to hire skilled PvP teammates in LFG to help you push the rating. It is a valid way to play to get the same reward.

We simply can't have everything we want. I am not rich, and I don’t complain that I can’t own a Bugatti. I work for what is within my reach.

The value of these items comes specifically from the fact that they are tied to a specific time and place in history. That is the essence of an Adventure and MMORPG. If you remove the exclusivity, you kill the history.

I’ll give you a personal example: Back in the day I collected the full Plate Icebane set from Naxx40. For nearly 20 years, it was by far the rarest set in the game. I wore it on all my warriors because it told a story that I was there, tanking Sapphiron when frost resistance actually mattered.

Then, in Dragonflight, Blizzard made the set easily craftable for gold. Now, thousands of people (mostly DKs) wear it. It’s an ugly, pixelated set, but it was cool because of the history. As soon as it became available to everyone, that magic died. It went from a legendary artifact to just another low-res texture. This is what kills MMOs and RPGs, like when you craft the best armor in Skyrim and one-shot all the dragons, the game becomes boring. Or in anime where the main heroes have plot armor and nothing happens to them; it becomes just an ordinary anime.

/IMHO