I literally leveled up from grinding strikes in D1. I'd use strikes until Iron Banner came around then then infused my best PvP gear and then used that. I'd be as high as I could reasonably get without raids before IB was gone. I'd didn't have a group to raid with all the time and I didn't like LFG. So no. Either your experience was completely different from mine and many others for some reason or you weren't paying attention.