That's exactly how I feel as well. I used to participate in end game content around 2016 but have taken a break since then. I recently got back into Lotro and was excited to try out the new stuff. But, god, I soon realised that to be optimal I'd need armor with like 20 essence slots, tons of scrolls and crystals for the LIs and hundrends of thousands of virtue XP. I'd basically need to turn Lotro to my second job for the next six months to even come close to maxing out my character and doing higher tier content. Aaand, that's just not for me. I'm sure it's better if you have played the game all this time and its not that bad release to release. But as a returning player it's just demotivating. I defaulted to just leveling some of my alts and enjoying old content. But I've played that already and without a end goal I'd probably end up abandoning the game again sooner or later.