Well, you know. There may or may not be balance differences. I have no doubt that the exact point-to-point likenesses are very important to some players, and I understand that. Having said this, World of Warcraft Classic is still designed in such a way that the overall experience presented to us is naturally built to engender a social gaming challenge that modern MMORPGs simply do not offer. This, by itself, is very much worthwhile and it may even shine a public light on the aspects of MMORPG game design that have been missing in action with all the modern trend-chasing design elements we see regurgitated over and over again these days. In that, World of Warcraft Classic is of great value. Speaking as a player who came to MMOs too late to enjoy those old-school charms (though on an academic level, I have been aware of them for a long time), playing World of Warcraft Classic is almost a revelation.
Having said that: I am running a Warrior, so for me, overtuned or undertuned elite mobs or what, the struggle is real and it is glorious. Different experiences in different avenues of play, I guess.
As for Elite mobs, I failed to beat Hogger solo at Level 13 but at Level 14 with a buff provided by a stranger and a healing potion to keep me from dying, I did indeed manage to solo-kill Hogger, insofar as it can be called “solo” if you’re using a Rank 2 Mark of the Wild buff provided by another player to do it.
Take that as you will. Hogger, for reference, is a Level 11 elite mob.
EDIT: Additional side note. Social media avenues online are far more active now than they were during vanilla WoW’s run, so it may just be that it is far easier to find out about exploits and speedy grinding methods than it was back in the day. This is also a factor to consider.
I almost rolled a mage this go around for that reason lol. Was it as popular on my old server as it is now? No but we can thank how much more publicized it is by streamers and jow it has had 15 years on private servers to get around.