The core Blizzard franchises were technical & marketing marvels, there’s no denying that. It’s an objective fact. These were talented, passionate professionals who (for the most part) loved games & were obsessed with showing gaming’s potential to the world & to the industry.
Future iterations of the company retained the marketing knowhow… but the technical/innovation talent got diluted or corrupted over time. It comes with success.
WoW is one of those titles that by definition has to preserve some of its core structure (I guess even if that means enabling Classic servers). Its subscription model forces that team to incorporate some of the original business philosophy, even when vultures swoop in & try to disfigure it. It’s a living history still playing out in a decades-old game still actively supported by the company… and if that’s boring, it’s because either gaming or history is boring, or both.