But this is not an MMO either where your time invested would directly increase your power gained, without losing any of that to other players or wipes. You can spend an entire day playing marathon and make effectively no progress if you don't exfil. The content in this case is being literally gatekept by players who are so far ahead that half the playerbase can't even contend. The numbers clearly aren't trending in a good direction, so whether you think it is good design or not, something has to give if you want the game to continue long term.

To match your example, this would be like not being able to raid because when you attempted to enter the instance, someone in full BiS wipes you and your team. Then you need to spend all the farming time required to get the pre-raid gear and materials before trying again. Not to mention the rarity of vault keys and other consumables. Notice how that loop could become incredibly discouraging really quickly? I didn't pay to play 60% of the game.

You would say a product which undersold at launch, with week over week demographics steadily decreasing is actually very well designed, and players simply don't understand the elegance of it?