If you are coming from other MMOs, inventory management is massively improved by your bank.
if you are in the game because you want it to look good, legendaries can be transmogged to take on the appearance of any other skin you have previously unlocked for that item type in the game. So an epic grind for epic gear that is stat selectable and usable on for every build on every character. Plus there is a legendary armory which means once you obtain 1 legendary item, it can be used account-wide on all your characters simultaneously as well as on all of the builds on the same character with each build being able to have completely different stats. Legendary items, on the other hand, require a large investment of time with achievements, crafting that costs upwards of thousands of gold, and most often will have unique appearance mechanics or combat mechanics.
They also offer upgrade and infusion slots for additional customization. If you did want to grind for gear, you will grind for the top two gear rarities: Ascended are account bound and can be passed to any character that has access to that weapon or armor class. If you want a full build of basic looking exotic gear (only 5% weaker than the top gear), you can equip a character for a little less than 10-15 gold. Plus, max level players visiting lower level maps will have their stats capped at specific levels so newbies don't feel useless. Once you hit Level 80, gear from years ago is still relevant and equally strong today.
I didn't feel the pressure of being a new player entering a game that has existed for a decade. Still, I picked up a free account and suddenly I had a HUGE open world to explore. One of my buddies told me to pick up GW2 and at first I was REALLY skeptical. I was more interested in games based on story arcs, avoiding the pay-to-win or fetch quests games, avoiding a subscription model, etc. So I have had friends play MMOs for years and they have all tried to talk me into WoW, Final Fantasy, etc.