Can you think of many examples where high end quests involved a large number of extremely low rate drops in low level areas that were non-tradable? Usually a quest might have very few... and usually the drop rate is pretty decent, moving you through the low level portion, if there is one. Even farming prayer shawl components in EQ (lower level... but the zone could be a little challenge).. was maybe an hour of farming for siren hair. None of this spending weeks on rng junk. You go in, do your time and move on through.
Even that was soloing, not this zergfest type setup. (Oh and you collected gems and stuff while doing it that made it somewhat nice) - and those weapons lasted MUCH MUCH longer... shawl, too. I hung on to both until PoP... that was a couple of expansions. But please... share some example quests -and rewards- you think are comparable.