This thread makes my head scratch. The game is entering it's 13th year. The total franchise is 22 years old. What do you expect the game to do exactly to not continue? Even with 5million subscribers that's 600million payout from subscriptions, that excludes other in-goings and out-goings. I mean it must be really appalling to have to have a subscriber base that has the same population as Norway. They must be clearly doing stuff wrong. Yes they had subscribers going up to the population that exceeded Belgium back in Wrath of the Lich King, but that was back when there was a period of recession and aftermath too, it was easier to play games indoor at little expense than nowadays where there isn't so much recession and a bit of freedom to do so.
I mean really, gamers from 12-13 years ago have most likely walked further into their life choices. I personally have children myself and play more casually than what I use to, I welcome the change and even then they had this change for a lot time. When they had separate difficulties based on group size and it eventually evolved into what it is today. What's the point of spending money on content that like 1% sees? There isn't, that's bad for business and bussiness model for any company. I like the game still there are things that don't correlate in my mind but hey, I don't make it, I play it and sub it. The game is catering for every player as much as most other games do and not just Blizzard itself.
It's a multiplayer online, it's a pretty clue that it isn't just for one target audience. And if you don't like it, actions speak louder than words, unsubscribe and stop complaining or finding any platform to whine about your distaste.
To say scaling is a cheap way of doing things. The cheapest way would be not release content for months if not years, not provide hotfixes and patches in between major content pushes and the like. To recoup as much profit without the cost of the working team behind World of Warcraft until players realise and unsubscribe till they have zero base left. Ignorance is really bliss on this. And so what if they reuse older content? It was made with the intention for players to use... What's the point of keeping it live when a small fraction see it for 5 minutes then left? It's like leaving a shirt in your closet and never using it and allowing to take up space, you might as well use it if it's still decent.