LFR and ilvl have ruined the game

I recently resubbed to WoW and am immediately regretting this decision. I leveled this Shaman to level cap and have busted my hump to get this character as raid ready as possible and what do I find but Burning Crusade level power creep. I'm told by every guild, even guilds that only have a single ToT boss down normal mode that my gear is too terrible to risk me in the run. In the past I could just grind dungeons and get some "welfare" epics to pad out my gear and get accepted into just about any guild based on my past experience and passable entry level gear.

Today my eight years of experience, including my WOTE cutting edge achievement mean absolutely nothing compared to "ilvl". If I want to gear up, my only option is getting a key from Isle of Thunder then get an RNG number of elder coins to grind old LFR content 17 ilvls (at best) lower than the minimum requirements guilds demand for a 1/12N guild (also totally RNG) then get one shot a week at ToT LFR for the worst RNG drop rates possible. I went 1/12 bosses in ToT for items (not even upgrades, just items). My friend went 2/12. In the past I could grind heroics and pick up some "welfare" epics to make the cut, now I'm given one raid lockout a week to collect enough gear to make an arbitrary 500 ilvl deadline. I can't make the items drop so now I'm stuck paying a subscription to do LFR once a week while guilds reject me for ilvl. This game is an embarrassment now. I have no control over my character progression and am unable to progress due to lack of progression. What the hell are the devs thinking?