I think so many people who disliked TBC or want to put it down seem to forget that things were much different before people got gear, especially the sunwell badge gear.
Early TBC was pretty rough, you had to have CC as a tank not just because of threat but because you didn't have the gear to survive all of that mess. Healers generally didn't have the mana, and DPS weren't able to survive hits like they can now. Now later in TBC you saw the 1 button Warlocks, and 1 button Resto Shaman type things, but during that first raid tier things were pretty rough.
As far as people saying players are better today, I'm not sure I buy that, I certainly was a better player back then, but then I had to be. I may be a more informed player today, but I'm not sure I was better. Solo healing heroics as a Paladin could get interesting at times, especially with no AOE heal. I was a blessing throwing machine, with god knows how many rank spells in my rotation ( Pretty sure I had at least 3 Holy lights alone ). LoH's sucked you dry, and Paladins without a Shadow Priest were pretty much dead in the water until a pot came off CD. I think I used LoH's as much as a mana return as I did to save someone ( or maybe that was vanilla, been a while). I definitely was better at thinking on my feet back then. Heck I healed a Paladin through normal Shadowlabs with less than 7k health, I'm not sure my fingers work well enough to do that now
People also tend to forget that those that were pretty good at CC were a god send. Hunters that could trap two targets at once and keep another kited were a thing of beauty. Maybe that was the difference, you could tell the great players from the good players, from the ok players, to the ones you didn't want near you.
Keep in mind I don't consider TBC my favorite expansion either, so it's not like I'm just dying to have it back. There are some things I would like to see make a come back, mainly the threat, it sucked so much out of the game when it didn't matter anymore.