While you now get more loot, the better your medal is, there's no loot it's impossible to get unless you get Gold. This was done to address the problem of people giving up on PUGs once things go bad, and I guess they took it seriously enough to put it in a hotfix. Hope it works.
https://forums.wildstar-online.com/forums/index.php?/topic/97651-update-notes-7162014/
Me personally, I'm just glad it will stop asking me if I want to soulbind every time I move something in my bags .
Right now, Reddit is currently doing battle with itself over this whole thing. Some people are annoyed that apparently getting gold is not a 100% chance for an epic now at vet dungeons/raids, others are stating how this was the only real answer considering if it was 100% chance, the same "no gold? dropping out" would still happen, even with the other fixes. Sucks to be Carbine right now since they are in a lose/lose battle... either p**s off the majority of the people playing that aren't hardcore/hardcore lite or p**s off the uber hardcore which they have been pushing most of the advertising for.