I dunno about dumbed down, it's dumbed down for the mid-tier crowd, definitely, but Mimiron pre-nerf was approaching soul-crushingly hard. I'd put it almost at M'uru level. Yogg-Saron with 0 keepers (which Tsunami was on the verge of beating before 3.2, augh, got it 2nd pull after the patch hit, f.u.blizz) was literally head and shoulders above anything else in the game up to that point in terms of the amount of coordination and split-second timing required.

Dumbed down my ass. >:(
My personal observation is, the problem with meritocracys in developing nations is the fact that, most of the time you can't even find competent people to fill spots. Take a workplace for example... How many times have you looked across the partition at the next guy over and wondered to yourself what the flying f* he's doing there earning a salary... yet when it comes down to screening and interviewing a replacement, surprise of all surprises, no one better walks in.

Maybe it's the fact that the average IQ of 'poorer' countries just is lower. Maybe the only real way people move forward in this kind of environment is to band together, following the age-old idiom of the bundle of sticks. (p.s. I'd take a baseball bat over a bundle of sticks any day) Maybe a couple of generations with a non-shit national education system will fix the problem. With the amount of intelligent people leaking out of the country by going overseas to study and staying there after realizing what a shithole this place is, I kinda doubt it, though.

from perspective of a yet-to-ding-80 wow player running few pugged TBC instances, i've seen non tank spec warrior refuse to tank when the rest of the group consist fully of off-spec healers, rogues that didn't sap mobs for easier pull, dk that likes yoyo mobs around, shaman that didn't place totems, paladins that waste AoW proc etc, etc... and some of them were in blue gears.

some people might be undergeared, but i believe some amongst them would provide more valuable actions than those who have blue/purple geared all around; you might been crossing few dozens of them who 'just want to focus on certain job' while ignoring wholly what their class are capable of. when comes to some situations like a raid facing wipe, although a green geared paladin/ shaman/ warlock might be less help on healz/ pewpew, but at least they provide certain usefulness comparing to a properly geared warrior rogue that just want their names on top of DPS chart.

and sometimes, luck plays an important part on getting those gears... some people are just on some unfortunate losing streak when comes to rolling

sounds good! lulz

With my time schedule? No hope.
Well so far this is my guild progress.
TOC 10 = we killed 4 of the bosses. We killed the twin angels

Ulduar 10 = we can kill everything normal mode except mimiron, general and yogg.

OS 3 drakes = We can kill sartharion for this achievement after a few tries. actually this is a pug i make, but some of the people is my guildys. Hoping to keep it internal in the future

Ulduar 25 = we killed everything except mimirong, general and yogg. Some weeks we don't even manage to kill Ignis >-<;
I have been helping get new members especially priests, and some good dps. Also we have been gearing members. So gearwise we are ready, just that we need people to be more consistent by showing up on time, and our GM needs to set specific raid times.

becoz the can ™