This is another bad argument.
While the AH is not fundamentally required to progress, it exists and is, without a doubt, the best way to progress. Thus people complain because the INARGUABLE BEST WAY to progress in this game is through a monetary investment, not through playing the game.
The game is balanced (admittedly by Blizzard) 100% around loot, not around player skill or (supposedly) even build choice. They want you to use loot, and the best way to get loot is the AH.
So ya, people feel shafted that playing the game (that they paid for, this isn't a F2P game) is a gimped experience.
Very few people have made this the complaint; I know you have and I don't really disagree that it feels a little "weird" to be gearing through the AH because it's the best route. But, at the same time, most "best routes" weren't really playing the game either (e.g., boss runs for loot vs clearing entire areas for loot).
As long as an AH exists, there's literally nothing to be done that changes this besides having amazing items become guaranteed drops and making the AH effectively worthless. 1.0.3 won't solve this issue; it just means you can get potentially better drops from farming than before. You still need to farm to progress (or farm to sell to buy on the AH to progress).
I'm talking about the people who complain that they use the AH because it is actually impossible to get a drop that allows them to progress. This is completely false. Or, if it is true (e.g., ilvl 63s in all slots and in Act 1 or Act 2), then it's entirely a player issue that's causing them problems and not their gear.
This isn't a completely fair assesment. I've done a fair amount of farming act I inferno and have only a couple rings to show for it (equipped). I've found some stuff and sold some stuff and bought some stuff, but I feel like even that's not enough to progress into act II. I'm willing to put in the work to find the gear I need, and I still don't find it.
If act II requires iLvl61 and a mix of iLvl 62+ gear to succeed and I can barely get iLvl 61 stuff to drop in Act I, we have an issue with the way the game progresses it's players.
Change your build if need be. My Monk was facing a pretty harsh gear wall and ended up not having issues with Act 2 at relatively low stats (sub-5000/500 Armor/Resists) due to build changes. And you may have more ilvl 61+ stuff equipped than you think, especially if you bought stuff on the AH. It's hard to gauge it properly when you can buy ilvl 62/63 things to use and trying to farm for an ilvl 61 replacement on those is insanely rare :/