The way the game is now is definitely because of MMO evolution. Would you prefer bosses drop 2 pieces of loot again?
Try Albion great game, where its player made gear.
fixed this for you.
OP your thinking is whats caused the downfall of this game. Go play a first person shooter.
They have never, at any point, had even a million subs.
edit: As I said earlier, no official numbers for subs has ever been given. The most accurate (though still not entirely) is https://ffxivcensus.com/ Feel free to peruse the historical bits, there is a link to past census at the bottom of the page.
This is a bit like saying the thing you find most undesirable about cars is that they have wheels, and “go”.
How are gearing and raids detrimental to the MMO genre?
50 years from now kids will be playing D&D with their robot friends with robots yelling "Lightning bolt! Lightning bolt! "
Your wife will be a 3D hologram and your nerd son will be playing this version of WOW saying how great it must have been back in the day.