Yes, every stage of WoW was once Retail. What does that have to do with anything? We’re comparing Wrath Classic to current Retail.
Wrath Classic should have been about emulating Wrath. Not Wrath + “some tweaks to super cool Retail systems we think would work uber great in Wrath!” The Classic team should be fired for taking that approach. It’s a betrayal of the original purpose of these servers.