Good post OP despite the negativity.

While I have had good pugs the majority of them are undergeared for anything. Example for the "you don't need x gear for y instance" people, pugged AK for the first time in weeks last weekend. Got matched with a decent healer but 2 under geared dps. One with a GC wep and the other with a lvl 44 pink wep neither had any darklight. Needless to say we never made it past wall. Best we did was survive until he pushed us back so far we were in the poison. So while i agree that a good player can do some things without being completely geared it's not recommended.

Once you get to Titan HM that pretty much changes. Go in with under 3100hp and you're almost assured to get killed by stomps in p3. That's if you manage to avoid everything before that and get the heart down.

It's not about being elitist or a jerk. It's about not expecting to be carried to everything. Do the work like the rest of us had to do