Absolutely. People who thrive on complexity become min-maxers who do not understand those who are not wired that way. But wow has always been confusing. Even before it became systemlands, new players were overwhelmed with too much info.
Two problems:
- Lack of a learning curve;
- Nothing of interest to do while you’re trying to reach that point.
The game has never has so little casual content. All new players (and I’m not talking about elites who come from another game) start as casuals. There’s a huge learning curve and no help in the game.
Probably new player retention is worse than ever. A character of mine who was leveling on a low pop guild joined a guild full of classic/tbcc refugees who were eagerly looking to play end game and just reaching max. A few weeks later most had quit.
Imagine being a new player at this point and having to start the grind without any of the skips your alts can take advantage of. You just got out of BfA where you had to crawl on the ground while watching everybody else flying. The work ahead of you is massive.