Trust me when I say I know
exactly what you mean. I've repeated my point of view on flying, and clarified it so many times that I almost feel like I should keep a text file on my desktop so I can copy/paste it in replies.
Such as? If you're going to bring up PVP again, I think you won't win that argument. Flying definitely adds an additional dimension to open world PVP, and definitely hurts ganking. But I don't really consider ganking as a legitimate form of WPVP, since it consists of waiting until someone lower level than you comes along, or waiting until a player is already engaged. There are FAR better things to argue for than that, and far greater things harming real WPVP than flying.
I actually disagree on this point, as I don't think it's necessary to have it be a binary decision. Flying can absolutely be used in some areas of the game, but not others. We can very easily have zones like the Firelands, where you go through a portal, or ride a boat, or whatever, and enter an entire zone where flight is restricted.
But then there can also be zones in the same expansion that are 100% designed to use flying, with airships, griffons, or other flying threats patrolling an area full of floating islands, steep cliffs, cave systems, giant trees, or whatever other form of vertical terrain that better suits the type of movement flight allows.
Again, I have to disagree. They can't know what every single player wants, but they can make a pretty educated guess at what the majority wants. All I have to do is look at the steep dropoff in players after the formula of WoD(no flying forever) failed miserably to see what players think about that design. I don't necessarily need to know exactly what players want instead, but I
CAN tell that the design without flying didn't work well.
On top of that, even myself, as a single person, can browse all the various forums and see that there's a general approval for the unlocking aspects of Pathfinder, but general disapproval of the 8 month delay. Is that what every single WoW player thinks? Almost certainly not. But it seems to me that there's enough of a general consensus on the topic to warrant an alteration in the approach of the Pathfinder system.
And it's not like it would even take that much of an alteration. Assuming Blizzard didn't take my suggestion and build some zones to use flying from the beginning:
Unlock flying with Pathfinder part 1 in the launch content. Any future zone releases would need to be separated via portals or fatigue walls, and have each new zone either carry its own Pathfinder unlock. Include at least a token explanation in-game for why we have to re-earn the ability to fly, possibly with a scenario or final quest to garnish the actual unlock and add a little flavor.
They could have done this in BfA with
ease! Nazjatar was already set apart from the launch content, being only accessible via portal. All it would have taken for Mechagon would have been to portal that as well instead of putting it so close to Kul'Tiras. Boom. Done. They could have dispensed with the 8 month delay, made players happy, and potentially even increased the NZ/Mech grind a bit to compensate.
Why would this be so damn hard for Blizzard to do? Rhetorical question. It wouldn't. They just have someone(Probably Hazzicostas) with a stick up their ass about flying.