This sounds easy to do, yes, but thought through it can lead to "i do not like any part of the game", especially when the game changes a lot and one aspect affects the other aspects (which i might have liked a lot and that have become undoable in practice). And as some have rightfully said, PuGs have a right and reason to exist, so "don't PuG" is not a valid alternative. It is a luxury.
We agree on some basics, but why don't you see the danger of it becoming a replacement? The whole design screams it (loot, accesibility, cooldowns etc.). And like minigames, you as player have no control about the setup (not even who signed up is visible atm). It would be nice as side addition to fill a gap of a non-existant route before, but please don't go in denial about the dangers of bad design. This means you also deny that some points and flaws with the RF are fixable. It is nice though, that you say "published" intent
I personally see the potential and want them to fix it, so it fits in well balanced with existing content. I do not want it to become hyped unfinished content (what will happen when the shards are farmed and rings and pets claimed? Do you think the RF experience will truly help in t1-t3 and t4+?). Funcom has a tendency to leave things as they are, if ignored long enough (even if fixing would be easy, like with tournament queue for minis).