Since the level squish, you level up a lot faster than you're used to. As most people will say, the real part of the game is the endgame, or at least things you can do at max level.

Gear will mostly come from quests whilst leveling, and somewhat sporadically at that. You could run dungeons for more gear, but you'll mostly end up getting the same slots over and over if you do. It's a part of the game that still really feels unpolished.

Good-ish news about professions though! You level them per expansion now. That means that you no longer have to do old content for drops to DE, for example. Instead, once you hit max, you can just learn the latest expansion's version on top, and not bother with having to catch up.