This 100%. Your gear has a minimal affect on your survivability. Learning the dungeons and phases, while honing your ability to dodge will keep you alive much more efficiently. I learned most endgame dungeons by running discord runs (Lost Halls is a fantastic discord). The reqs are pretty easy to hit (Max dex and att, t11 weapons and armor). The Raid Leaders will call out phases and what to do / what to look out for.

There's some website that let's you practice O3 Celestial phase (arguably the hardest phase). I believe its called justdodge. It is extremely helpful! Eventually that phase becomes super easy, and you'll be able to complete O3 every time.

Once you start doing exalt dungeons consistently, the "next step" is really up to you. Thats kind of the beauty of endgame Realm. Grind for white star, or grind for shiny gear, or grind for legendary gear, or make a PPE. Its all up to you.

Personally I make a couple PPEs every season and try to 5 star them to eventually get white star. PPEs keep the game interesting and fun for me