I think this was always possible as long as there were enough materials on the trading post. Spending nearly 100 gold on leveling a character is about the equivalent of $100 worth of gems. I wonder if you could get a better rate from a power leveling service.
I’ve never really understood buying characters for MMO’s so I suppose this is just another thing I don’t understand. I can appreciate that it’s instant gratification but when the point of a game is to play and your level 80 is downgraded to fit the zone it’s in and the fact that there isn’t a ton of level 80 only stuff it just doesn’t make alot of sense. If you skip all of the sub-80 content, buy a level 80, and only do level 80 things it wouldnt be much of a game.