My only real hope is that eventually they will create a PVP Geared instance. Myself I've been buying the gear with my winnings and well now knowing it is not working I feel sorta used. Overall meh..it is still fun and is getting people into PVP. That and with the increase in Wolf Marks being given out it will allow people to buy the gear quicker. Before this I only bought a chest piece after playing a few rounds of the Den a week for a few months (my teams lost a lot lol). Waiting in que and only getting say 5 Wolf Marks is rather disappointing compared to the cost of the gear.
Would be good if this was their plan all along. Have the PvP gear not work so beginners are not feeling gimped, then release a PvP Geared arena so that players who started doing PvP in the previous one will now have gear to use.