I used to be like the OP. In my case, it was the gear treadmill. Login on Tuesday. Spam dungeons to cap tomes so I had the best available gear for raid nights ASAP. Do new Ex trials when they came out. Spam hunt marks to upgrade whatever pieces I didn't upgrade from raid etc. Then take a break for a few months until the next gear tier.

I got off that treadmill and have found so much more that I enjoy to do. If anything, gear is one of the last things on my mind. This has probably been the only expansion where I have NOT unsubbed. I don't know about the OP, but if there are players that focus on just one aspect of the game (like raiding), they'll be disappointed.