Blizz, RP-PVP is the only ruleset that matters and the only ruleset that’s appropriate for the game in the first place. That was true in 2004 and it’s true now. The game is a PVP roleplaying game!
PVP servers are for the sort of person whose first attempt at naming a character involve ruder variations of Tbagurface, PVE servers are for people whose intestines liquify in any confrontational context, but RP-PVP servers are for the sort of people who want to move in to Azeroth and live there, well, FOREVER.
Your stated goal is to keep people in world as long as possible, yet you’re gonna release the best version of WoW we’ve ever seen without the ruleset that most naturally works towards this goal. The goal is TOTAL IMMERSION in WARCRAFT.
I’ve played your game for 22 years. I was there at the beginning and I’m here at the end. I started on RP-PVP because THAT is the actual hardcore mode in warcraft, and when (many expansions later) I branched out, I regretted it. With the voidwalkers I say:
SEND. ME. BACK.