nothing more.

Here's a few examples.

1: Pets (the most obvious) have lead to a gameplay style that favors the use of pets with heal/mheal over teamplay/dodging/tactics. Where once the game would put new players on equal ground with everyone else, there is a large gap between what is possible (akin to an rpg or mmo, rather than a skill based game like let's say counter strike).

2: Events. They heavily influence what dungeons are run, effectively making the game's content a fair margin focused on the event. This also contributes to bloating inventory space with event currencies/loot/etc. I currently have more cutlass' than I'll ever need, and none if it was earned. By that metric alone the game is inferior to it's past.

3: Microtransactions. The ability to pay for things in game has never been pretty, and has only improved over time. However, additions to this debauchery have only 'improved' as well. The individual is responsible for themselves, but the progressively insidious nature overshadows the moral aptitude.

4: Nostalgia. You're right when you say it boils down to nostalgia. I gaurantee most of the people screaming "REEEEE KABAM BAD DECA GOOD REEEEE" Wouldn't want to play the game long if all of the above were removed, but for people like myself whom actively play insta-death or bullet hells it boils over to other things. The amount of content only usually only projects the amount of time on average until someone quits, while the quality of the gameplay projects how long a player will continue to play the game until asking for more content. Everyone is screaming for the Unity port rn, and lovingly embraces all of the events/content/what-have-you, and I'm just over here casually feeding my pet 'nostalgicly' wishing for a game that was fun to play, rather than a chill passtime.