I do think we’re in a period of apathy. There will likely be a ban wave soon but they generally don’t act as a deterrent. The WoW community as a larger whole has always been a bit toxic… Barrens chat got its reputation long before WoW Classic was a thing after all. I usually keep general/trade off until I actually need to go in those channels. Mind you, I’ve also left the main clusters to play on small community servers. The vibe is much more to my liking there. Not for everybody to be sure, but check out Grobbulus on Classic Era if you’re looking for a change.
I don’t believe boosting is considered a prohibited activity. Like, I agree with you here, I’m not a fan of monetized boosting and the impact it has on the game. I remember in Classic 2019 when it was impossible to find a group for SM but there were easily 100 players sitting AFK at the start getting boosted. Why play a video game if you’re not going to play!?
Still, I don’t think there’s any rule against it. In other versions Blizzard experimented with anti-boosting game mechanics, but even then it was never prohibited (I think), just something they tried to discourage.