Perhaps I could agree with that, however one of the greatest features of this server is that you don't need to donate to get the donation items. That is something that I really admire, and found difficult to see in other servers that I've played.
I totally understand what you mean, it is difficult to spend days after days questing for an item and not be able to compare it to the donation items, however see it from this point of view, as you said the people that donate get it easy but, when a person pays for something in this case they actually expect to get the best out of it. When you sell a person an item and the next thing they know is that in order for them to be able to have a full experience they have to put more work on it. In my opinion it is a way to say "Yeah, your money is not worth for us, thanks for donating".
In addition there are items that are better than the donation items. Some examples are the Friggs shield is a better item than the donation forsaken shield, also the Cursed and Blessed rings are intended to be better than the Capes. Plus, I can assure you that in the upcoming updates there will be a lot of great quests, and new great items that may be stronger than the donation items.
That is just my opinion. :]
