I’ve seen numerous posts and explanations as to why they stopped doing this. The tools evolved so they no longer needed to appear in-game. I’ve also heard that people were making a spectacle of a GM appearance, and it was causing a lot of misuse of the ticketing system.
https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/wow/t/azerite-token-redemption-mistake/105305/22
Here’s another quote from Vrakthris:
I’ve been around 15+ years too and have a little more exposure to the data involved here. Our Support overall has made vast improvements in the number of folks that we’re able to help and in the ways that we’re able to help them.
If you spend any time on reddit, you’ll see dozens of threads made by people who have long person to person conversations with GMs.
Here’s an example:
https://www.reddit.com/r/classicwow/comments/fel8if/official_gm_word_on_warsong_gulch_jumps/