Well, with Pharos Sirius, it was more that PS was a lot more difficult than the other two dungeons in that ex roulette, but gave the same rewards. Same with savage SCoB ^^; (Well, apart from those giving a shiny title per tier.) While there might have been some grumbling if all three dungeons in the Pharos grouping had been Difficult, unless I misremember things most of the complaints regarding Pharos was regarding the discrepancy and how people kept leaving the party instantly when they saw they'd ended up in Pharos (because it wasn't worth the extra effort when you were just after the tomes).
With Savage Gordias, I think the main problem was that A: they released normal two weeks beforehand, meaning those who'd be inclined to run savage had run normal 'way too many times' already, and B: the mechanics didn't seem to be that much different, apart from adding 'more'. More DPS checks, more of the same mechanic, etc. (Never ran Savage, so this is based on what I've seen people say or post, not personal experience, and I might be wrong.)
While I'm going to run Gordias Savage at some point, so I can get the dyeable caster/healer chest pieces, mostly I've been 'meh' about it. Midas savage... I actually want to try, because I've seen unused 'props' in normal and been wondering how they will be used in savage.
I used to be kind of against in-game parsers, due to having run into the 'bad' parsing crowd. You know, the ones who rag on other people for underperforming. But after having had 'friends' make statements to the likes of, "I don't really make any effort when running things unless I'm forced to", and having seen things being completed faster with them dead.... yeah. There's a difference between seeing "things die relatively quickly, we're doing just fine" and seeing "ok, I'm in the bottom 20% of my job, and things die relatively quick anyway. I'm clearly not the reason things die this quickly".