Umm there’s nothing to acknowledge. I don’t think your friends decided not to come back to the game solely because Hogger’s model was updated. That’s all I wrote.
Your treatise on the story or art ruining every expansion is based on nothing factual whatsoever. Cata’s story was fine, people left because the dungeons were too hard at first and DS lasted way too long. MoP’s story was regarded as amazing, as was the art style and class gameplay. That’s what MY friends all said, and that was the consensus that I noticed on the forums at the time. Your statistics are being pulled out of your subjective tushy, as are mine. I do not agree with anything you wrote up there.
And I don’t actually think it would reach 14m, I’m being hopeful. Not naïve, either. Just hopeful and excited. And if it winds up sucking, I’ll still play because even bad WoW is a good time. Just so much to do. But I won’t feel disappointed, because I choose not to have a negative emotional reaction to a hobby.
But I’m personally not holding my breath. Blizzard has dashed my hopes too many times. Four years ago, Blizzard borked the guild permissions, which Ion said was unintended and they were working on a fix. Four. Years. Ago.