The Clown Effect

Back when TBC came out, many people had either the standard, dull looking armor from 5-mans and others had the uniform, excellent looking armor from the raids.

Then they went to Outlands. There, they picked up greens and blues that were vastly superior to what they had and put them on.

They turned into clowns.

I don't have any Outlands toons at the moment, but look at Erthu:

His gear doesn't really go together. Admittedly, he is still in old world, but his gear is not set gear.

Compare what he has, to Alenena:

Her gear goes together, its not all of one set, but in Wrath, gear began to look less clownish, and return to the earlier armor styles in WoW- simple, semi-realistic looking. The earliest armors were unadorned, plain sheets of metal. Now, while the armor has advanced, players are no longer expected to wear a mish-mash of red, green and purple as they were in TBC. Anyways- the clown effect.