I don't really see an issue with grinding for gear, we mindlessly grind for everything else in the game as it is. That's basically GW in a nutshell. We just grind for mostly trivial things like vanity. Personally, I find gear progression much more gratifying than a title that typically represents hundreds, if not thousands of hours doing very mundane things.
The thing is, outside of reputation titles (and their skills) all of that grind is optional. Whereas if the power scaling goes on much longer, and the enemies are scaled to that higher power level, not only is that a lot of grinding which can't be avoided, but it is also duplicated across every (new) character.
I appreciate gear grinds when it introduces a new playstyle, but not when it just increases health +60 or what have you - which is how most games seem to implement it these days. Anniversary weapons are the type of end-game gear grind which would appeal to me, although I appreciate that grind isn't required.
Agree to disagree on this one I think!