'Retail' WOW has been moving from a 'purchase + pay for game-time' model to a 'purchase + in game cash shop' model. While the original (now much older) audience was fine with a subscription model, the current younger gamer sees this as a complete no-go, so the change was needed.
All legacy people I spoke to dismiss the idea of an in-game cash shop, but 'subscriptions' are a dying revenue model. So where will the revenue come from?
(I am pro-legacy, but it needs a revenue model)