I dont see why people feel the need to use the AH just because it's there, doesn't mean you have to use it.
I loved D3, but the hivemind of hate that the game got is just ruining it for everybody.
I agree with most of what you say OP, until I log on my hunter to do some battleground or arenas. After 10 games of "CC stun fear root freeze stun fear stun lawl dead" I always come to the same conclusion: What developer in their right fucking mind thinks this is a good pvp design?
Well, they didn't let him go exactly although it's not clear to anyone what he's doing. That's probably for the best. The fact is that forum hate and the rest was as much about him as the game and Blizzard can't really do anything with the situation as it was. It's pretty clear to me that the whole project wasn't handled well once he was onboard and that was his thing so that and how the game was presented to the community, etc. is on him. It's likely that the decision not to do an extensive public beta was his too but I'm sure that everyone at Blizzard said "OK Jay! If you're sure, then fine."
There's a lot of blame to go around. In any case, having him out of the way allows Blizzard to draw a line and move on from there.
"...money's most powerful ability is to allow bad people to continue doing bad things at the expense of those who don't have it."