Personally, I watch a strat video before I go into a new encounter. Only if it's a trial though, I didn't do it for CT. With CT, all I did was ask if there was anything I should know as a healer. I can figure the rest out on my own. I mean... all it takes is a pair of eyeballs and a little common sense to notice "oh, everyone is standing over here, maybe I should too."

Mostly, the videos are a bit of a comfort level. I won't remember everything I see, and it won't make me an expert on the fight, but I like knowing what to expect.

As for gear... should you out gear an instance? No... I mean... you have to earn gear to out-gear something... it doesn't just magically appear in your inventory. Fresh 50's have every right to be running the content that's available to their ilvl.