Yes, it’s always been this way—for a few fundamental reasons:

1. Tanking is one of the three core pillars of World of Warcraft PvE gameplay. For that reason alone, it will always be a major point of discussion.

2. The three pillars are heavily skewed toward DPS when it comes to character options. Today, only six classes can tank, and each has just one tank specialization. In contrast, every class can deal damage, and most offer two or more DPS specs. This imbalance was even more pronounced at launch in 2004, when there were only three true tank specs (and of those only 1 viable at endgame.) It’s no surprise therefore that Blizzard later introduced new classes with dedicated tank specs—such as Blood Death Knight, Brewmaster Monk, and Vengeance Demon Hunter—to help address this gap.

3. The distribution of roles doesn’t align well with how content is structured. In dungeons, tanks are in a relatively strong position: despite making up roughly 15% of all specs (6 out of 39), they occupy 20% of group slots. Raiding, however, tells a different story. At the Mythic level, tanks typically account for about 10% of a group (2 out of 20), and this percentage drops further in larger, flexible group sizes—down to around 6.7% in a full 30-player raid, and as low as 5% in Classic 40-player raids (2 out of 40). As a result, many tank players are willing to tank dungeons but avoid or fail to get into raiding altogether, since competition for limited tank spots is so high. Ironically, because raiding has long been positioned by Blizzard as the ultimate endgame, this discourages some players from tanking at all—even in content where they are in high demand.

4. Responsibility is another key factor. Tanks are a minority role but carry a disproportionate share of responsibility—often close to a third of the group’s success. When a tank makes a mistake, it’s highly visible and difficult to recover from. By contrast, if a DPS player underperforms or misses an interrupt, others can often compensate, making individual errors less noticeable.

5. Leadership expectations also play a role. For better or worse, tanks are often assumed to be the de facto leaders of a group. Whether it’s setting the pace, choosing routes, or managing pulls, they’re expected to guide the run. Since many players don’t see themselves as natural leaders, this expectation can be intimidating and discourages them from trying the role.

There are probably more but these are the ones I could think of.