Take a look at the DoL and DoH forums, OP. You're not alone. There are a few people who like the system, but they messed up DoL and DoH endgame progression hard in Heavensward. Getting to 1 star is pretty tough; getting to 2 stars is difficult; getting to 3 stars is damn near impossible.

There's also the fact that they completely botched Red Scrip gathering, and set the minimum threshold unreasonably high (to where you cannot actually get red scrip items without HQ crafted pieces and melds that you cannot accomplish on your own).

The broken state of endgame DoH and DoL had actually made me give up on trying to progress either one anymore, and I'm really hoping they take a good hard look at it in 3.3 and 4.0. Neither the specialist system, nor collectible gathering/synthesis, nor the favor system are fun, engaging, or entertaining, and none of them make the game better than it was before.