I agree with you, OP. Layering goes what vanilla WoW is. It takes what is supposed to be one world, and instances it into multiple Azeroth’s, dividing the world, it’s authenticity, and even putting a strain on the community as it will use/abuse the layering mechanics to their advantage in one way or another.
You’ll see people chatting about things that may not even occur on your layer at all. It will affect the economy strongly, and needless to say the immersion will be heavily damaged too as you see the machine behind the veil doing it’s thing, just for a more comfortable, technically stable experience. Layering has so many ripple effects on the whole game that cannot be ignored, and will change the game a lot by itself, but especially the longer it stays in.
WoW has already proven multiple times, and the most in vanilla, that you can have a very messy launch even for days or a week in, and still become the most successfull MMORPG of all time. People may upset for a while, and Blizzard employees might need intense relaxation yoga afterwards, but it will nevertheless be a great success in the longterm, because that original launch didn’t stop players last time, at all. It won’t do so this time either. Embrace the struggle, find your way to deal with it, no one forces you to rush and kill wolves for their buttfur right off the start. It’s not retail.
Go talk to people, fish, mine, play the AH, explore, duel… you name it. The storm will pass in about a week, especially with newer tech being able to handle more players. Layering is gonna stay for multiple weeks, worst case months, and will not be providing the classic experience.
On top of that, as the launch of classic will be very special, layering will be a part of that first start experience, and all the effects that come with it, be it on game mechanics, immersion or community, will be remembered by every player who is part of the launch and beyond.
No thanks. I’d rather have a chaotic week, and wait a bit extra or chill with leveling, than have to play some heavily altered version of what vanilla was for weeks or worst case months, just to have modern comfort and convenience as retail WoW provides, that sacrifices authenticity to rerelease classic WoW for it. It’s not worth it at all.