I appreciate you taking the time to do the legwork to investigate your hypothesis.
To be perfectly honest, I would argue they aren’t even listening to our rabid anti-rdf sweat lords. Blizzard has a long and storied history of making decisions based on this misplaced philosophy they know best for the player base.
That mindset might have been proper through WOTLK, and can we blame them? Those teams built the most popular MMO in the history of video games. But that success created the hubris we saw on display through SystemLands. And look where we are today.
All that to say, the Classic Team isn’t listening to feedback; they made this decision because they have a vision for the game it is by the grace of their divine plan that they will lead us into the promised land.
After living through 18 years of Blizzard’s wow team decisions, I’m not surprised.