The Pit Challenge Tier & Relic 8 [MEGA]

I just don't understand the need to implement a gear requirement at all. I will echo the sentiment here on the forums that CG are tremendous hypocrites. They claim this is to help guilds, but it only helps further the divide between Whales and F2P. This is probably the worst case of blatant hypocrisy since we were told that they were going to help with the gear crunch, and they bring out a new type of gear that all new toons need at least 150 of each type, and all older toons need at least 100 for G13. They have made some strides to help new players. They obviously are beholden to the whales/krakens. When do the rest of us(I would argue the vast majority) get any bones thrown our way??