Bro i have played wow for almost 20 years now without being unsubbed. I have followed the pserver scene.
Vanilla was basically dead after 2006. When Wrath came out, some nerds thought that Wrath was too hard and wanted Vanilla pservers. It was a handful.
After that Wrath was the main pserver place. Vanilla was very niche until nost.
And i don’t even know why you discuss this. Retail was the flavor of the month the entire time.