Working as i do in a space combating fraud semi-constantly, all these things you list are as easy or easier for fraudulent accounts to do than for the average real customer to do.
If you’re jumping a hoop one time, it requires a learning curve, esp. if it’s not smooth or intuitive. That can be a quit point for a real player. It’s going to be hard to attract new players with a 6-month grace period before you can trade or use the AH.
If you’re engaging with the hoop repeatedly, it’s easier to deconstruct and build a workaround or semi-automation. That’s effectively what a bot is for much more complex in-game systems.
If you create something that generally requires human interaction (like Captcha, in theory does) you can change the economics a bit, but most real humans also hate Captcha.
To the extent I sort of agree with the OP, it’s that fully clearing out all bots is not easy. But I think it understates that there are clearly things bots are doing (flyhacking, the SFK rogue armies on SOD, etc.) that are quite visible. Just because you can’t solve all of it, doesn’t mean there aren’t spaces Blizz could make a difference if it were inclined to invest even a little in doing so.
Thats not even including the fact that there are services where you can pay real people to solve Captcha for you, for like, $1 per 1000. So it’s really just a minor inconvenience at the end of the day.
We’re just at the early stages of botting. Proper AI controlled bots will be (are?) here. And they’ll be indistinguishable from players. And that will be an improvement. The big problem with bots in BGs is that they suck at pvp and hurt their team. In that SoTA where you are aoeing the gy and annihilating the bots as they res, there are those poor two actual players jumping around trying to get away. Those two players are having an awful time. But if the team were filled with AI bots instead, those two players would be having fun pvping in a competitive game. If the bots are always going to be here, then let’s lobby for good pvping AI controlled bots.
Bots are all over PvP, and because RMT boosting is an open secret (just look in trade chat), its rampant… Whole rated pvp rewards system has been monetized by 3rd party groups, and I doubt little will ever be done. Most of the PvP ladder is pay to win over on retail.
Whole game has a serious integrity issue, look up the hill at Blizzard, I see the lights are on but no one is home.