Run while you can!
A few notes:
- We are deep into chase meta, it's probably close to the end of the cycle. Empire revamp didn't get empire to meta territory, there was Zaul infestation which ended with Rex+chase. So the future of the meta is hard to determine. I'd keep collecting gear, but wouldn't spend them until we are into new metas. I bet jedi revamp underway or new jedis making them prevalent.
- For aat, there are many guilds that easily finishes it and you can look for a spot in one if you do your 600s perfectly. Imo the easiest teams you can collect that also scores good are droids for p2, wiggs for p4 and chirpa+palpy for p3. Start with whichever you are close to finishing. But since your damage won't be needed and besides top 3 everyone gets the same amount of GK shards, you can skip aat investment entirely if you won't push high for more gear.
- Rancor gear is still very much the real bottleneck. You may choose to invest in teebo teams, there's also Jinn teams capable of full solo. They nerfed Zader full auto solo team, it doesn't do the deal anymore.
- Your zeta unlock from ship challenges will take real time. Plan for it. Use your gw and ship arena coins to beef up your ships towards the unlock. Though bear in mind the droprate of the challenge is pretty low and some people prefer solely buying them from ship shop.
- I would consider a new account since you won't be pushing top 50 for months and level 72 is not that deep into the game either. In case of a reroll see the newbie tutorials around the forum.