I think a huge part of the problem is that a lot of strats are relying on Living Dead, Hallowed Ground, and Holmgang to allow healers to eke out some more damage beyond what the group would be capable of - basically, groups rely on these moves to make up for their own low gear threshold.

A group in ~215 gear is going to need every scrap of DPS they can get, and will need to rely on these "oh shit" buttons to succeed.

A group in ~230 gear is going to have a little more wiggle room, and might be able to get away with strats that don't use them.

My first A5S was with a PUG, and most of the players hadn't done savage before. The group leader had set the iLvl requirement at 215, and we ran into the exact issue described. Our DPS was just slightly too low, and we would get to 5% on the first miniboss before wiping. But because each attempt got that far, and because our strat relied on Hallowed Ground, we needed to wait 7 minutes between each attempt.

I can understand wanting to discourage its use like that, but groups are doing it anyway, and the restriction is making this part of the game seem extremely archaic and monotonous.