I don't remember them saying they didn't like the RNG legiondaries. otherwise it wouldn't have been the way to get them until the last patch.
If they didn't like the inifinte AP grind, why force it for 2 expansions?
You are smarter than this. The playerbase has a fatigue with systems like infinite AP grind. Which we don't even know too much about regards SL. We only know promises. Promises like "fine, no more titanforging nonsense, here's corruption gear that's so much less rng!". Right?
Come on.
BfA has flopped big time. They are forced to do something else. If they'd say: hey, shadowlands gonna have the same AP grind as BfA or Legion, people would run away in masses probably.
No need to frame the players for this. This is all business perspective.