you might be surprised but even high end players dont like the idea of no content
yes the raids were good but that was all there was
raid gear had rng sockets and tertiary along with WF which led to world first loot getting disenchanted
extreme amounts of split runs
so much proc based gameplay that you had one pull where you would do 15k more dps just because of an item or ability deciding to proc at that moment
one could argue that catered to the casual players as well since you would get raid gear once every two weeks without having to raid thanks to the garrison
garrisons also gave stuff for mount collectors
you got toys
you got free gold
who wasnt WoD made for??