Is gear gating what is considered to be harder? The virtual time vampire that is gathering so many of 'special' item to obtain gear needed to move onto the first, second or third tiers of bosses.

I think not. In fact, this formula is responsible for many a MMO's death or move to a micro-transaction framework. The Rift, Lotro, Tera and Aion come to mind.

The only MMORPGs that use this tactic and survive with subscriptions are _________.

This game, if it wants to be successful, should not be relying on its players to run a boss 56 times in order to proceed to the next boss -- simply so the developers have more time to work on implementing how they will sink your time next. (86 times for the next boss!)

That isn't difficult and it doesn't require skill. It requires time, that is all. Time...