Just because Strikes are on farm and the farmers expect certain things from their groups does not say anything about the actual content or the way the majority of the population is using it.And from my experience (200+ strikes running Open Pugs) and looking at the numbers in Arc a very wide range of skill levels are represented by the players are joining my groups. Your statement is no different than calling the most successful map in the game a failure because LFGs expect a player to be experienced enough know what RIBA means. Silverwastes isn't really designed to be a stepping stone to other content, so this comparison would not seem to be accurate. It has nothing to do with the similarity that you're attempting to provide with regards to fractals -- AR is there by design. What is being said is that the intention of strikes as a stepping stone to raids is where strikes are failing. IMO, raiders should be raiding and not hanging out in strike missions but it seems that they are because the rewards are better in strikes. And because raiders are farming strikes for rewards, they are looking for specific thresholds to be met which may be preventing non-raid players from experiencing the content and thus keeping them out of raids.