Guild Wars 2

The game has always been a zerg train fest. It was and still is slowly moving towards being mainly and almost only that.

It makes sense, I guess. It is a b2p game after all. The major part of their revenue comes from having people buy the game which also includes some extra bucks they spend on the gem shop soon after.
Open world PvE is the place to go for them. They can join the most rewarding farm content without needing to gear first.
Nerfing dungeon rewards and also introducing just as or even more rewarding zerg trains was one part of that.
The other part was introducing ascended gear, hero points, masteries and all of the new stuff you have to farm. Keeping them busy long enough to buy most of convenience items and some cosmetic stuff off the gem store.

Raids are a small attempt to keep those who already farmed everything busy for a while. For now they are actually a gold sink. A reason to do even more of those open world zergs. Can imagine that their popularity will drop soon enough.

A lot of the things that made the game special got removed or just abandoned along the way (dungeons, SAB, etc). Those who mainly did dungeons for various reasons (me included) find themselves without much to do.
Don’t think there is anything that is planned or intented to take the role dungeons used to have. Raids aren’t what you should look at when you want to run with your not so good friends like you did in dungeons.

Sadly, there is need to make the game more interesting for veterans. There is no need to keep anyone subscribed, after all.

I think the development time for the Raid was a total waste; these resources could have been spent to fix the game in other areas that badly need it.