Didn't play for some time now, but I think cow set is not the same as it was before. Not the #1 set for each class anymore. Endgame gear power level and builds it allows is a bit better distributed now, although obv. not perfect. If you change the drop rates, let it be like Jared mentioned for instance, would make the items something special for a bit longer.

Since we had this much new content and a lot of drop rate changes, a near ladder reset would be good to really bring back the value of the exclusive annihilus content back. So that people will run the content and feel rewarded if they are lucky or invest time

It is a shame not to run dreamlands or cthulu now, just because you don't need the items since it's flooded with them. It's a relict from a beta like release phase, as always when new content comes out. A ladder reset, along with all the vanilla benefits, can purge it on the new state. I think thus, the ladder reset should NOT come with new content, but with changes to a highly balanced state after some deployed and tested content patch state (like we have now)