Originally Posted by
Prag
You're haphazardly conflating the "Classic experience" and "TBC experience" as the "spirit of the original game". For many people, TBC was their classic experience, or first exposure to WoW. Those who were eager to experience Classic (pre-TBC) and see what they missed, like me, did so and likely enjoyed Classic.
This won't be the same on TBC launch. It won't be people discovering WoW for the first time and associating TBC with the pre-58 experience.
You've already tried to minimize the argument of "I don't want to level to 58 to experience TBC", which I think is a massive oversight on your behalf. Even without a paid boost, the leveling zones in Classic are dead right now, at least as far as group content goes. I don't need to expand on this, but the Classic experience I had at launch is not visible today. Even at 60, it's mostly GDKP runs for MC/Ony, so gear progression is all fucked for new 60's.
All that to say, I don't think the pre-58 TBC experience without a paid boost would be nearly as meaningful as you're making it. It would be a miserable, lonely experience of following Questie markers until you can finally go to Outlands.