There was zero reason to announce that any expansion wouldn’t be coming after classic because blizzard themselves, for literally 15 years, had the “you think you do but you dont” mindset with classic. They truely did not think classic wow would succeed and thus only announced vanilla.
They even said it at wod’s blizzcon. It took 2 of the biggest vanilla private servers ever to get it through to them that we didn’t just want the current expansion. You can think Nostalrius in particular for why we have had ANYTHING other than the current expansion now.
However, this time they did announce it directly ahead of time. You want a fresh vanilla server that wont automatically go to tbc?
Then play hardcore. Otherwise play era. Thats your options
Also you have your reason now.SOD Account Restrictions: how can Blizzard help new players who are affected? - #39 by GarnetHound-14887