I remember these being worth it way back in the day. My guild did two of these this weekend. Granted they were not difficult, but there was almost zero reason to do them. We earned 20 City tokens (each) for a turn in value of...wait for it...500 guild status!!! (5000 personal status) Aside from the lame status rewards (which is one of the main reasons we were doing them), we received zero loot from the zones. So that was a bit of a bummer too.
I don't think they were ever worth doing. They rewarded a mediocre gear set I think but that's about it. I believe they were meant to be a tutorial for getting into end game raids but I don't really remember exactly what the intent was.
