Legendary chain items & 'catchup'(10M)

I just wondered what other peoples take on this is.
The legendary chain takes alot of time from the start of content to now. They havent really made it any chance to catch up only by nerfing the valor stage by 3k.
We recruited 2 new guys to our 10m recently after others quited. 1 guy is just finishing his valor the other is onto the part after to gather secrets. At the same time everyone else has finished their cloaks now.
These items arent just minor increases they are massive, the gem is worth like 6x normal one. The cloak is double the stats of a normal one.
The other members are always going to be very inferior no matter how much gear they get given.

There is no way for the gap to ever be closed as by the time they get the gem - patch 5.4 is out.
By the time they get cloak(which they will have to do old LFR for) everyone will get what i assume is an op weapon and the content will prolly be complete...

Surely if you have a chain that takes this long there should atleast be a system inplace where people could catch up from 1 patch behind to the current at end of content.

Having to do ToT without a gem & cloak is punishment enough, does the it have to continue through 5.4 raid.

A couple of people quiting raiding team this expansion screws over the progress completely right now for pretty much the rest of mop.