Originally Posted by Jacimo
What the ratings requirements across the entirety of Season 4 reflects is Blizzard attempting to impose an elitist edge to the 'welfare epics' that Sunwell Plateau items enforced on the PvE aspect of the game prior to Wrath of the Lich King. When you see somebody fully decked out in Season 4/Tier 6.5 as you both make your steady ways through Northrend's content, you'll know that the player earned it and didn't necessarily sit back jumping around in Alterac Valley or from starting a Badge collection.
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What you brought into discussion here is what will happen after Season 4. Basically, on every PVP realm in the world, for some time, between a month and half a year, Northrend will be just one massive killing field, where PVP will flourish. Now, occasional PVP happens nowdays too, but flying mounts being readily available for everyone somehow change the dynamics of PVP. Take those away for a few levels, AND mass a great deal of characters into new zones, and you've instantly revitalized PVP.
During this leveling period, gear will give a lot of people an edge. The hardcore raiders (man, I hate it when I have to use these terms) as well as top rated arena players should, by default, have no trouble going into Northrend with stuff that a level 80 player would have. Now, I'm not sure how many people have the foresight to actually take this into account, but a close to full set of s3 will still be a worthwhile investment in the context of walking into a battlefield. Ideally, if people know what to expect, there should still be a steady demand for arena points, be it the 10 matches a week kind of points.
Realistically? I have no idea; depending on what kind of items will sport resilience in the new content, and how attainable they'll be, you could simply stay in s1 and be just fine till you get s3 equivalent blues.
However, in the context of having to actually level in that gear, I'd say the ratings on s4 are quite a good way to keep world PVP fair.