That was the issue with the server though, I mean it was pretty buggy from what I rememebr even though you are right it was the best, and it was super popular up until that fuckin cash shop bullshit showed up. This completely ruined 90% of tbc. And tbc just can’t be played like that. Wotlk can survive because a ton of people play wotlk for pvp and just love doing icc heroic over and over. But tbc just simply can’t be played with a cash shop which is why I believe (because it happened around the same time) why it died. And yeah opening up the ‘legit’ server did die off quickly but it was because it came late, I would have played that server but I already was too invested.
But even still, disregarding all those things, I believe tbc has way less.... replayability without FRESH servers as wotlk does. I love tbc I think it’s the best. But the replayability on a non fresh server feels meh. Idk what it is about wotlk but that shit is just better, for me at least, when it comes to just playing end expansion content over and over and over.