The problem with raiding is the boss drops.

The biggest problem with raiding is that people do it to get gear. That's a messed up motivator designed only to pile bodies onto it.

Imagine if pro sports players only played to get better uniforms, equipment, etc. No, they do it for the perceived fame it affords them through honest competition.

World of Warcraft's LFR? That's not even raiding. That's “Practice mode” I see no reason why you should NOT get gear from there. Certainly, doing LFR does not prepare you for actual raiding like practicing an actual sport would, but it would familiarize you with the mechanics to a degree, and give you a chance to get the gear you need to start raiding for a low cost.

What about the rest of the gear? The expensive, hard to get gear you currently get from raiding? Crafting. Using daily cooldowns. And daily per ACCOUNT, not this absurd per Garrison stuff Blizzard put into World or Warcraft.

You LFR until you have all the LFR gear, a few weeks tops, then you join a raid team for the real deal.

You kill bosses... and... nothing drops. Ever. You're not there for the loot, you're there to get better at raiding. To get gear, you earn gold through other means and buy it, or make it yourself. People that are just there for the loot have no reason whatsoever to show up. People that run raids have no incentive whatsoever to let your “alt” who “needs gear from this boss” to step in. Your “alt” that is better suited for this particular fight, and is geared and ready for it? The raid leader has every incentive to let you switch. Serious raiders would have a brace of alts available as you get into the higher tiers.

You would need a lot of tier levels, 5 at least, in order to accommodate teams at all skill levels. Me? I would probably be stuck at tier 1 or 2. But that's my choice because of the amount of effort I'm willing to put into it. It would be like being limited to AAA Baseball for my entire career.

What do you get from raiding? Ranking status. You team is ranked against all others in your tier. Gear is limited to the tier cap to prevent seeding teams with geared ringers. Once your team has dominated a tier, you can progress to the next one. You as an individual also have a “Tier rating” And can only participate in tiers you have progressed up to. You can drop down a tier, but are then limited to the gear for that tier.

The same basic principle could be applied to PvP Battlegrounds. Blizzard just banned hundreds of thousands of dip shits for botting battlegrounds. Why would people bot battlegrounds? Because all they have to do is show up and they get free rewards. You should be in Battlegrounds because you want to improve your Battleground ranking. Where do you get Battleground gear? Yup. Crafting again. You have to buy it or make it. Both methods require you to put in effort outside of the Battleground to be able to compete in the Battleground.

Just like in real sports.