Farming is fun, for many people.
I have no interest in appearances, as long as my 1.5K armor is decent-looking (my necro may get a change soon). I don't care about the skins on my weapons, just what they do. I do have some emotional desire to have the greens for my character classes, whether they use them or not, but I don't go crazy about that due to inventory space limitations.
In my case, I've given a lot of money to my wife, for her various characters, because she doesn't enjoy farming as much as I do. But that detail aside, maxing out a character with useful stuff isn't really all THAT cheap. For example, for my elementalist I like having or would like to have:
1.5K armor
Sup runes for each of the four attributes, each on its own hat, plus a minor in case of DP.
Collectors staff, wand, and focus item for each of the four attributes.
Enchantment extenders (what I actually have is Rago's Flame Staff, Galigord's Stone Staff, and a 19% axe mod stuck on a collector's FFS)
When-enchanted collector's shield
Kindlerock (a little better than collector's in my opinion)
+5 Defensive and Of Defense (or Shelter) mods for staves for each of the attributes (in some cases I have just +4s)
Hale/Fortitude mods for one or more staffs (the attributes I might want to play in PvP -- I have +55-57 on a couple of staves, but haven't paid up for +60)
Collector's +15 energy/-1 regen items (I want one or two of the new Canthan ones)
Eventually the 20/20 wands from the Canthan crafters you get to near the end of the game.
Sup Vigor (I just have Majors).
An ample supply of candy canes (I came out of Wintersday with 400, which is about the number I farmed. I've used 15-20 since).
That's just for my elementalist. Other casters might have similar needs. Rangers can use a lot of different bows too, and warriors can use several versions of each weapon. Some classes benefit from having multiple armor sets even beyond headgear.
Inventory space is obviously a limitation as well as money. But you don't all that without a lot of farming, or profitable trading, or receiving gifts, or whatever.
In my case there was a lot of farming, a lot of profitable trading, and a few gifts. On the other hand, I also gave away a lot of cash and some similarly valuable gifts.