So, you don’t actually have a rebuttal…you just have ad hominem.
In debate, this is generally known as a weak argument.
The numbers speak for themselves. Not to mention the fact that the devs reversed course on their “no flying ever again” and did extensive work to make wod, which had almost zero work done on it for flight readiness to make it possible to fly there. You can claim that flight wasn’t the reason people were leaving for wod, but all the facts are there.
They wouldn’t have sunk all the resources and man hours into something that was essentially a finished product (at that point, wod was done and they were working on legion). You don’t spend that much to go back to rework a product that just needs patches released, for something they said they were “never” going to allow going forward, if it wasn’t the reason they were losing people left, right, and center.
Unless of course you’re in damage control mode and you want to try and stem the flow of bleeding subs.
I’m not saying portalgate is the next flying, but it is a large and obvious quality of life issue that wasn’t a problem until the devs decided to make it one. In that, it is very much like the flying issue. They are also similar in the fact that they are, so far doubling down on their stance with a lot of empty talk, stubbornness and failing to follow through on what they promised (bringing CoT back).