I just did a quick forum search for all topics posted before Nov. 2015 (one year after WoD released) with key words: rares, rare spawns, rare mobs - nothing has come up in the general search about the topic at all. Not saying that it isn’t out there, but it’s not showing as a full discussion thread.
Like not even topics: ‘Rares are a Joke / Please get rid of rare status’ - type posts. So I dunno. I’ve been playing on and off a long time, this is the first I’ve ever heard of the issue.
Most topics from before the switchover to the new software were not preserved. They only went back about 6 months from what I recall.
I remember people talking about removing the silver dragons. I don’t remember it being a heavily debated hot button issue. Or maybe it was overshadowed with all the discussons on Flying.
The topics are still on archive.org, but the posts are not.
i remember threads complain about how silver rares aren’t really rare anymore but i never saw any threads asking for the symbol to be removed.