How do Achievements fit in to guild progression?

Yesterday I wrote about achievements that I thought were broken. The original plan for today was to talk about how I think achievements could be fixed/improved. I am still going to touch on that, but some posts on our guild forums have caused me to expand on the original topic.

Last night in Naxx 25, some of our members asked if we could try to do some of the heroic raid achievements. Now, I am all for a good challenge, but not just for the sake of making the encounters slower or more difficult. I like heroic achievements that are about doing the fight the right way but without mistake, or faster, or with less handicaps (such as resistance). However, achievements that ask you to do a fight in a way that it was clearly not intended, just to make the fight harder, are a complete crock (I.M.n.s.H.O.). Yesterday I mentioned Spore Loser as an achievement that I considered broken. Well, I also consider it a crock. This was the achievement in question last night. Some raiders wanted to try it, but some did not. We did a quick poll in the Officers' channel, and it was a unanimous decision (at least among those who responded) to not attempt the achievement. So, why is this? There are probably several reasons that players don't want to try something like this, but my reasons are as follows:

1. Not killing the spores prevents players from getting the crit buff, which in turn increases the length of the fight significantly. Many of us want to clear Naxx as quickly as possible. If the achievement were to ensure that every spore results in 5 people gaining the buff (something else that would take skill, but would also speed up the fight), I would be all for it.
2. The reward for completeing this achievement is achievement points. Yes, that is all. So, we make the fight more difficult and a heck of a lot slower and we get bragging rights. Wow, sign me up >_<
3. This isn't how the fight was designed to be completed. The spores were put into the fight to provide the buff so that players had to coordinate (ensuring that the maximum number of players were affected). So, the achievement is to do the fight improperly—it's just not my cup of tea.

In all fairness, not all of the achievements incite those same thoughts in me. In fact, some of them are just what I think they should be. I would love to see us complete Make Quick Werk of Him, in which we would have to down Patwerk in 3 minutes or less. This achievement both speeds up the time in which the fight is done AND takes skill. This is the type of achievement I can stand behind.

However, there are players who want to complete all of the achievements (or at least the ones that are required for the meta-achievement Glory of the Raider. The Glory of the Raider meta-achievement has a reward of a Black Proto-Drake (a coveted 310% speed mount). I understand why some players want to work toward this, but a faster mount (or, at least this specific faster mount) is not at the top of everyone's priority list. Sure, most of us would like a faster mount, but there are other ways to get one, and not everyone is on board for working toward this one. So, my question is, "How far should a guild go, for several players, for something as unnecessary as this mount?" That's a difficult question, but here are my thoughts:

1. I don't like the idea of asking 25 people to work on achievements that maybe half of them really want. It could be more than half, but from a guild poll we are running, it looks like it's less than half (at least at the time of this posting). It just feels unfair to me to ask people to jump into this when they are really there to clear the instance.
2. Players can acquire a Plagued Proto-Drake by completing the non-heroic version of this meta-achievement. Finding 10 people who are like-minded and want to complete the raid achievements is a lot easier than finding 25. Of course, the 10-man content is a bit more difficult, but it's within reach of a balanced group of good players who really want it.
3. For those that cannot get the 10-man achievements done, time (and gear) will improve their chances. By the time Ulduar is available, players should be much better geared. Also, once our guild is in Ulduar, we will most likely not be running Naxx 25 (at least not regularly). This makes the perfect opportunity for players to form a guild PUG for the achievements. If players are interested in getting the mount, they will attend. If they are not, well, then I'd rather not have forced them to do it in the first place. And, hey, a guild PUG can always be filled out with a few non-guildy PUGers.

I guess I have made it pretty clear where I stand. I don't want the achievements to get in the way of speed, progression, or the proper way of completing a fight. If all achievements were challenging, but met these rules, I would be the happiest of "cheivers." The only other way you could pull me in would be for the achievements to offer more rewards. Sartharion does just that. Not only is there a mount drop, but there is also upgraded gear (and more of it), from doing the achievement. And, clearly, the fight was designed to be done with three drakes up in the first place. this is an achievement handled correctly. It offers a challenge and appropriate rewards for overcoming that challenge—not just a faster way to move around when we are not raiding.

That's how I think Blizzard can fix achievements: They need to make sure that the effort to reward ratio is appropriate in the eyes of the majority of players. From what I have heard, this is the direction Ulduar is headed. I hope that ends up being true, because if it's not, I will be sorely disappointed.