You do realize that the Game Director is the original min /maxer .
His guild back ( that he still is gm of ) back before he worked for Blizz was the Icy- Veins and WoWhead of WoW theory crafting and what talents players should take for their classes of it’s day . (pre-Cata)
He expected anyone that didn’t min/max to take what ever and be happy with their low gear and WQs . He knew full well anyone that is going to step in to a normal or higher raid or do mythic keys were going to go for the meta .
And I will comment this is the worst expansion ever in my opinion. I literally didn’t play it for the first 10 months and up to that point I only missed a few months in 13 years.
Back in Vanilla on the C’thunn fight when he was a player , they told Blizz it was a numbers issue and now as some one at Blizz when players say there is a problem well
During Legion Ion started a thread on the forum telling players that he didn’t understand how or why people play alts. Could we please help them understand?
The thread went to 1200 posts. He never returned to it.
My friends said it was better then BFA by a small margin. They all quit BFA 1 month in. Shadowlands in retrospect lasted them two months, so improvement?
The real reason people hate Shadowlands is because we were locked into the worst zone ever created for a year and a half for all max level progression, the Maw. Then we were forced into a repetitive and boring solo dungeon experience that was an extension of that horrible zone, Torghast. Said zone originally didn’t allow mounting and never allowed flying. Everything about it was something only a masochist could love.
The first new zone (Korthia) was also just an extension of that horrible zone. And while it was a marginal improvement, marginal is the best it had to offer.
They can’t be surprised that people hate a zone designed to be hated. And when all the game has to offer is that zone and more of that zone, the game also became hated.