Anything could be, however, I’ve never seen much confirmation about anything like that. I saw a few interviews with people who quit the company at different times, like G. Street, or C. Kaleiki, and nobody could point out a single instance where a crucial decision was made under pressure of activision. It does not mean there isn’t anything like that, but the core problems might also be blizz problems.
For example, positive and negative effects of “every voice matters”
Or that blizz devs viewed and maybe still view themselves as “rock stars”
I do not know the sources of the claim, but supposedly the devs consider WoW so far ahead of the other MMOs that there are no rivals / no ideas worth considering (till ~20:00):
edit:
IMO the key problem is that the game is successful largely because of the communities and the nostalgia factor of the IP. But the devs probably think that it’s because they do an amazing job in step by step replacing the original ideas of the game.
gl hf