I really wish people like you would stop trying to bring economics into your argument. In 2010, when Blizzard had its highest sub numbers, the combined net revenue of Activision-Blizzard was 4.4 billion. In 2013, after a bad year in sub drops, the net revenue of Activision-Blizzard was *drumroll* 4.58 billion! But wait, how does revenue go up when subscription numbers go down? By diversifying their game selection and continuing to focus on quality gameplay that will keep people coming back time and time again.
So while sub numbers can be a good indicator for where a game is trending, a marginal gain/drop in subs has little to no effect on revenue and stockholders don't really care about that "subscription" line. They care about that "Dividends per share" line, and the general analysis for how the company is built up and prepared for the future. Stockholders aren't video game fans who jump ship at the slightest sign of trouble; they make informed investments and are in it for the long haul. Therefore, a company with proven worth and financial stability (ie, Blizzard) is worth far more than anything else, sub numbers be damned.
Wrong. More subscribers means more free income, sure, but having fewer subscribers has very little impact on how much content Blizzard creates. They made two continents, sixty levels worth of questing, raids, dozens of dungeons, etc, all without a single subscriber at that point.
Obviously if WoW isn't profitable then Blizzard won't continue making content for it, but we're way, way waaaay off that point.
The pro-flying arguments always boil down to "Because I like to use it to explore" or "Flying is the only thing I enjoy in game!"
Despite the fact that you can use other methods to explore (and in fact, exploring would be more fun on a ground mount because you can't easily access everything you want to see) and that if flying is the only thing you enjoy in game, then maybe you should be quitting and find something else that you enjoy a lot more.
No, what you said is you don't want to bother with mobs that you find trivial (even though you have yet to encounter them), unchallenging (even though you have yet to see if they have level 100 elites that are challenging to you or the target objectives roaming the low level zones), and no risk with your precious time.
Basically, you don't want to do gameplay that Blizzard feels is important.