I generally think that the gear and activity progression for a new player on a fresh 80 would be something like old world 6mans -> t1 -> t2/khitai normal 6mans/khitai solo conten -> Khitai godslayers -> t3. The problem with this is that it is very challenging to put together any old world 6man groups as well as any khitai normal groups besides a ming farm. This leaves fresh 80s with T1 and T2 as their primary means of gearing up. Even khitai solo questing in northern grasslands is tough without AA and in crappy level 70-80 blue gear depending on class.
So what does a new player at level 80 do? Continuously post in global for old world 6mans and fail, do t1 raids, and do t2 raids if they happen to not be a tank. Well I've been doing every t1 as well as every t2 on my conq for the past 5 weeks and how many epic pieces do I have? One t1 belt, 3 t1 tokens, and 2 t2 tokens. Doesnt bother me too much considering I like playing a conq and I have other toons to do stuff on in between raids ... but that new player (if they even exit anymore) is not going to be happy with practically 0 progression in 5 weeks of time epecially considering there are little to no activities to do in between those raids.
Really I think they should start giving 1 guaranteed t1 tokens for every t1 boss. 4 tokens a week isnt game breaking or anything but at least it guarantees some sort of progression. I find most people play MMOs because they enjoy progressing their characters and a guaranteed piece of t1 loot every week if you do every t1 raid would be nice for new players as well as vets leveling up alts.