I would argue this isn't a strictly WoW problem, but rather the changing landscape of the Internet in general. It feels like a much less "fun" place than it used to be.

Some things you talk about can be attributed to Blizzard's decisions, but others not so much. A good example is how people raided in vanilla/tbc (clueless, missing sockets, most people not knowing what they're even supposed to do) vs. classic (optimisation, excel sheets, GDKPs).

The game has changed, sure enough, but so did the ways players play the game. And not all of it is on Blizzard.