I think you’re spot on here, and a lot of the pushback comes from players who don’t understand what the learning loop is in higher level content that good meters allow. I think there’s a big disconnect in these discussions that often gets misunderstood. When higher end players say something like “you don’t run that level of content, so your opinion doesn’t really apply,” casual players often hear, “you’re a bad player and your opinion doesn’t matter.”
That’s not what we mean at all. What we’re actually saying is: at the level of content you play, mistakes simply aren’t punished heavily, and that’s fine. But once you get into content where even small mistakes are lethal (which is inevitable in infinitely-scaling systems like Mythic+), the game fundamentally changes. The way you approach pulls, plan defensives, track cooldowns, and communicate all evolve because the margin for error disappears.
This is also why the addon debate is so frustrating (in this case just DPS meters). You’ll often hear: “addons play the game for you!” That’s false. Addons don’t play the game. They display already available information in a more readable way so players can make informed decisions faster. At lower difficulties, that information doesn’t really matter. But at higher levels, interpreting that information quickly is the difference between timing a key or wiping.
Take an example:
In a +7 key, two casters start targeting me. I just keep DPSing. I’ll take a bit of damage, but the healer will cover it. No big deal.
In a +14, the same pull happens. I know I have one defensive and one immunity. The healer checks OmniCD, sees I have tools available, and decides not to use an external on me. Maybe that’s the right call, maybe it’s not. It depends on whether I react properly.
Let’s say I don’t. I miss my defensive and die. Now I want to understand “why”. This is where good meters come in handy. I check the death log and see I took two hits in 0.3 seconds. I check cooldown usage. Oh look, I never used my defensives. I check interrupts. None went out. So the takeaway isn’t “the healer didn’t heal me,” it’s “I failed to use a CD, and the group failed to interrupt.” We learn, adjust, and improve. We can do this in seconds by looking at Details.
That kind of analysis, the learning loop, is what addons make possible. Without them, higher end play becomes not just harder, but less readable. It becomes more of a game of player vs UI because the UI is now working against you instead of with you. You can’t improve at something you can’t see clearly.
And that’s the key point: no matter how much Blizzard simplifies mechanics, this kind of high-pressure scenario will always exist in infinitely-scaling content like Mythic+. You can’t “design out” the need for awareness and analysis when damage keeps scaling and mistakes remain lethal.
To more directly address OPs point, the need for this type of analysis will not go away. Instead, it will just become less convenient and more dependent on third party tools like logging websites, which is the complete opposite of Blizzard’s stated goal.
edit: a word