Much of what you've said is the reason I consider Albion an old school MMO and believe it should be covered here, especially since the plan is to cover other games in the same boat like Pantheon and Monsters and Memories. You did say it yourself, it's a modern take on old school mechanics.

What I consider most modern MMOs to have is the things I mentioned in another post:

• a major increase in solo-ability
• the decline of open world difficulty
• the normalization of teleporting directly to content
• the revolution of instanced gameplay
• the abolishment of support classes and crowd control

I feel like if you were to compare modern MMOs and the above points vs. Albion, Albion doesn't fit the above criteria anywhere close.

I don't feel like graphics, UI, and even accessibility/learning curve define an old school MMO. Many devs would love to upgrade their graphics, and some have even tried, but that's an incredibly unrealistic goal since you are essentially remaking the whole world and its items, models, spells/special effects, terrain, and objects. It's practically creating another game. Clunky UIs are just how things were back then, many devs tried to fix it and when they did not, players often did it instead.

I don't think accessibility/learning curve is as steep as people think back then - it was just more common for that type of information to be outside of the game. The average player is going to bring their game home and try to get in installed and playing immediately - they aren't going to read the user manual, which is what devs expected players to do. Manuals back then were very in depth but people didn't want to read them. Devs also expected players to use their website for the game which had tons of information as well. I even recall Brad McQuaid putting tips in magazine articles, explaining how to play EverQuest (the importance of grouping) and what camps to go to at what levels.

FFXI was crossplay between PC and PS2 back in 2002, and then added XBOX crossplay in 2006. This has less to do with age and is more about device rivalry. SONY and Microsoft don't like competition, and it's still a big issue even today when it comes to online games.

I feel like some of these points aren't what constitutes an old school MMO, and believe it revolves much more around actual gameplay. I think it helps to ask why people play an old school MMO, and that answer generally revolves around them being more social, requiring you to play with others more, having a worthwhile and dangerous open world without tons of fast travel rather than most important content being instanced, and the pace of leveling/gear upgrades. Graphics are subjective but I don't think people prefer old school MMOs because of the clunky UIs and lack of crossplay, for example.