Addons just create a 2 tiered game design:
If you think that making the game more difficult is a benefit to the game, you should be against addons, since they always make the game easier. The person who does not use addons (including many new players) experience a different, more difficult version of the game.
WOW has a horrible UI, if you want to play with it go ahead, but one of the things that probably made WOW successful when it launched was the ability to replace Blizzardâs UI with a better one and which could eliminate much of the clutter or other fundamental UI issues there are with the UI, a good example, use the add-on badboy and you can elmimate much of the annoying spam chat in the game extremely easily.
Taking the game backwards is an awful idea.
Or⌠OR⌠Hear me out⌠Blizzard developers could improve the game so you donât have to download an addon to fix it for them.
I recently picked up retail and leveled all the way to 60 on a paladin, and I havenât installed any add-ons thanks to all the UI improvements they have made. Until those improvements are implemented Iâll keep downloading add-ons.
They donât have enough time as it is to fix all the Cata issues in addition to the laundry list of whatever is coming through with SoD updates.
The base auction house is also awful, and I personally prefer to use auctionator, which simplifies it by stacking repeat (300+) single item auctions that are coppers apart vs cycling through page tabs of the individual item.
Oh yeah, I forgot Blizzard is a small indie company. 
Blizz does not have the manpower to duplicate all the existing addons.
Amazing how itâs easy for individual modders to make free addons that you have to download from 3rd party websites, but itâs impossible for Blizzard because they supposedly just donât have enough paid employees.
If you want to play in âhard modeâ, then knock yourself out and surround yourself with like minded individuals.
If itâs a popular idea you wonât struggle to locate other players to do so.
Itâs a hard pass from me. My UI is the same as itâs been for years through addons and Iâm not in favor of changing it because some random person doesnât like addons.
Terrible idea.
I donât want to play in hard mode, I just donât want hard mode to be the only option for those who choose not to use addons.
See this makes the huge assumption that what I want in my UI is the same is what everyone else wants, and I am pretty sure a lot of people wouldnât like my UI. People want different experiences, the fact that you can modify the UI solves the issue by letting people make the changes they want, where you can change a little, or change a lot.
The other thing I can say, is that I am relatively positive any changes made by Blizzard to the UI wouldnât improve it, and would be just as likely have to make the UI worse then better.
So again, UI mods are good and led to wow being a successful, being stuck in a horrible UI designed by someone with different priorities is bad.
You have a doomer mentality, and with this kind of thinking, WoW will never improve in any meaningful way.
Why is knowing people are different, and that there is no one size fits all, a doomer mentality? People are simply different, and like different things, they also have different environments which can have a huge impact on what they want from a UI. Also why would you assume whatâs right for a majority of players is right for all players?
The reality is there is zero reason to eliminate add-ons, none, especially for the reasons specified. New players arenât that confused, and if they are thats the problem of the Blizzard UI not the add-ons, additionally even if Blizzard decides to fix some of this confusion by improving their UI, it still doesnât provide any justification to eliminate an extremely successful part of their application, which actually helps them develop features and functionality, because again, customization is good.
I addressed this.
Seek like minded people for your crusade and play to your heartâs content.
I donât know if youâre just not reading what I wrote or if you arenât understanding something, but I donât want a hard mode.
Didnât you say sod was terrible? why you still playing and posting on forums?
Your in luck then, your playing SOD, a simplified version of Classic/ERA which is stupidly easy to play because they have boosted almost all classes so much, you will find there are almost no mechanics to most fights, and you simply have to manage often a simple rotation and cooldowns, which will allow you to parse effectively. That said there are no add-ons that will really help you manage your rotation/cooldowns if you struggling with that if its causing you to parse poorly, so even with no add-ons, you arenât at a disadvantage compared to any other player.
I read what you wrote just fine.
Letâs not hyper-fixate on one segment of my point. Youâre asking for no addons to be allowed in the game.
Iâm recommending you seek like minded players to surround yourself with like minded people who want to play the same way.
If itâs such a popular idea then you wonât struggle locating them.
Blizzard will never implement a system that lets you see if crafting âthis itemâ will sell for less than the materials to make it.
Nor will they make a decent HUD for things like HP and Resource Power.
Then thereâs the RP addons that actually make this game bearable for those who like that.
I agree on the point of they need to rethink âencounterâ and âmeterâ addons.
Encounters should be dynamic, which would make things like DBM useless beyond âhey, you got this buff âdo the thing!ââ. And the Combat API should be locked down to prevent âparsingâ, which is really what Damage Meters doâŚWCL just applies a grade to it based on what others of your spec/class have done.
âŚI would like to keep the Floating Combat Text mods, though. Itâs pretty cool having color-code damage numbers based on the Damage School.
((Parsing was fine when it was âbe top 10 DPS to be âgoodââ. But now itâs been taken to the extreme.))
Raiding would be unplayable without mods. The mechanics are too unforgiving.