The difficulty of Normal Content in this game needs to increase.

[Gurgeh]

This is oddly specific.

Why are we working under the assumption that someone has arrived at endgame precisely at the start of a new expansion and is expecting to start the first savage tier of that expansion as soon as it launches?

Why do they need to make their own gear?

A new player who just finished the MSQ has a huge amount of old content to work through while they start prepping for high-end content, assuming that's their goal. What's the rush? I think most people are more likely to take their time and at least try some current extreme trials and whatnot while working through some of the backlog of old content that they have to catch up on before jumping straight into savage.

People need to not use the word 'need' in games. Games are fun. Games are entertainment. Need had nothing to do with it.

And the reason is... you are about to be telling casual gamers for the first time since they don't have other expansions to get through, that that is all they are getting... For fing ages.
My god the number of times some not-so-smart arse , has said 'weelll... You should just to extremes, or savage, or ultimate' ... Yet savage is already massively underway and the early, warmup savages are already done with in your communities.

It's also just what makes sense.
You progress
You prepare
You enjoy all the game has including crafting. Crafting your own gear.
easy > harder > even harder > massocist
Most people don't drop out of their mother's genetalia, and decide to start with a sprint. It's just not the natural order of the universe.

Because fun
Not because need.