I agree with the OP.
my guild is a casual one and they clear normal 8 man in the first run... even WOW is not that easy (LFR doesn't count ).
my other concern is why do i need to run FP's to gear up for ops when ops gives the same gear as HM Fp's?
For example from my experience:
I ran HM 10 times (2 week) only to get 1 columi token and 1 purple. When i do ops i get 3 purple and 1 offhand weapon token in 1 day...