Well, big news coming from Blizzard: The new valor gear coming with the new tier of content will still be tied to a reputation faction, but it will be the new raid faction: Shado-Pan Assault. What this means is that players who are sick of dailies and just want to raid can rejoice - as long as you're running the Throne of Thunder, you'll get access to the new sweetness.
As long as one can gain rep through LFR (and given how much they're pushing LFR this expansion, I imagine they will allow that) I think this is a fantastic change. While I'm not entirely against daily quest factions, as an altoholic I think rep-grinding through instance runs is a lot less of a pain (soloing as a mage - something I've never really enjoyed.)
On the other hand, that does leave a certain question of how non-raiders are going to get by. One could argue that as non-raiders, they don't need the fancy gear, but I think that's a pretty bad philosophy - as soon as one's avenues to improvement are closed, the game feels less like fun.
And even though Blizzard clearly wants to convert a lot of non-raiders to at least LFR raiders, I think allowing multiple options for people is a very good idea.
The question all of this raises is what the new daily factions, the Kirin Tor Offensive and Sunreaver Onslaught, are going to reward. A mount might be cool, but I think there ought to be some kind of power-increase reward for the weeks it will take to hit exalted.
The simplest solution is of course to merely let people buy Reputation Gear with gold from these two. They could return to a more traditional reputation model, though the big problem with those old-fashioned types was that they usually had a very limited selection. By having "all shoulders" or "all helmets" tied to a particular faction, the appeal was fairly general.
Frankly, I actually think it might just be time for them to return to the old model of having VP gear available without any gating other than the weekly cap. Then, you could keep the daily quest model for factions (allowing the faction grind to really feel like a grind for that faction and not just a "check out my tabard! I'm totally fighting the Neferset in the name of the Wildhammer Clan!") Hardcore daily-questers would be able to get decent gear for their efforts, and the way one acquired VP (and VP gear) would be up to them.
I get what Blizzard is trying to do: They're balanced on the edge of a knife, trying to make content appealing without making it feel mandatory, and while I think that the fragment of 5.2's Valor system that I've seen is a step in the right direction, I think the system I've just proposed would be the optimal one.
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