Let’s not get distracted by half-answers. Your post claims players vanished because they “weren’t high enough level to run Gnomeregan.” But that doesn’t explain:
Why they quit instead of leveling
Why dungeon and log activity cratered across the board
Why casual or mid-tier play didn’t hold steady despite BFD still being available
More importantly this still doesn’t touch the other two questions:
Why did botting and RMT spike after the GDKP ban? You ban the most visible gold system, and suddenly there’s more whisper spam, shell guild activity, and AH manipulation. That’s not coincidence that’s redistribution.
Why did Phase 2 fail to recover player engagement? Even weeks later, the population never returned to pre-ban levels. No surge. No bounce. Just fragmentation and silence. If people were “just leveling,” they would’ve come back. They didn’t.
So until those questions get actual answers, this isn’t a rebuttal. It’s just filler wrapped in speculation. The numbers are clean. The silence around them? Deafening.