Great post. I fully agree with you!
I played WoW since release and got around 1200 /played, which is pretty much (and nerdy, I know).
Just as you have stated, I spent most of them from Vanilla until Wotlk. Even though the game became much easier with WotLK, I still had some fun.
Cataclysm just changed the game too much. It went in a horrible direction.
WoW is completely dumbed down. The 4 difficulty levels LFR, Normal, Flex and Heroic are just completely retarded. There should, like in classic, only be one difficulty level for raids. Questing is designed to be no fun at all since it's completely linear. Classes are no longer unique. Every class feels the same.
Therefore, and because of many other reasons (which are obvious and have already been listed) i finally cancelled my subscription for my 3 accounts after 8 years.
To those who say it's nostalgia... it's not. I started playing with some friends on a private classic realm (completely blizzlike / 1.12) and we enjoy the game as much as we did 8 years ago. No rosa glasses here.
The whole game is just so much harder. If you don't travel around whole Azeroth you will simply run out of quests.
Even though the raids are easier (due to not that much mechanics), they require MUCH MORE dedication to the game. It's like in real life. If you want something, work for it.
Complaining about balance, difficulty etc in vanilla/tbc is plain stupid. Just see how the subscriber number went down from tbc to mop. GG blizz!
If you want to know any information regarding the classic realm, pm me.