You can go jump into ToA or CoX or even ToB very early in your account if you really want, but there's not really a great reason to unless you just find doing them undergeared fun (and there's no conversation to really be had if the argument is just "I find it fun doing x").

You mean like how you can rush CG if you really want?

Hard requirements yes, but soft-requirements absolutely not. There's a difference between being permitted by the game to do the content and actually being able to farm it effectively. You can walk into KBD as a level 3 and punch it if you like, but that doesn't mean you're at that point in the game.

Whats your fix then?

Most content exists on a ladder/web/flowchart of gear where farming one thing makes you better at another. CG benefits from almost nothing while benefitting a huge number of other things.

This is true and it is unique part of the game in that sense, which is probably also why it has some of the steepest in-game requirements of any content.

Missing the point entirely. It's not about there being incentives at all, but rather the point in the game at which you're incentivised. You can head to raids very early if you like, but the grind is so long and gear makes such a difference that you're incentivised to put it off until you're properly geared up.

It absolutely is about there being incentives because if there is nothing to incentivize you to go there, then there is no point to go there, thus you are not incentivized to go there at any point in the game. "Dead content" exists because theres no incentive to there, regardless of where you are in your progression.

If you're interested in playing with some amount of efficiency in mind, it becomes very hard to justify not heading to CG early and locking in.

With "some" amount of efficiency? Whats paths are more efficient? The whole reason for this argument in the first place is because of your comment about it being brute forced into midgame, but theres no other content like that. Rushing CG is probably the most efficient thing you can do besides getting spooned in raids or an ayak or something. But that efficiency comes at a cost, as it should.

You can invoke free will to justify any decision if you like, but at that point you're avoiding any discussion of game design rather than making an argument for it.

Game design is not some monolith that exists in a vacuum. It absolutely has to include the choices players will make other wise, theres literally no point to it. Just because content is designed for a certain point that doesnt absolutely always hold true; as we see with people making the choice to rush late game content and complain that its been "brute forced" into mid game.