It’s absolutely hilarious that you used Torghast of all things as your example of Blizzard listening. In SL Beta Torghast was fun and fairly well liked. You could pick almost any anima powers and still blitz through the layers. Blizzard took that feedback and decided to make it harder. This slowed the whole experience down, certain anima powers became make or break, and it just became a HUGE slog. So the situation you mention was entirely created by them not listening to players.
Want another example? DF beta they decided that healers were too powerful, they buffed players health by 40% and enemies damage by the same amount. They did this when there was about a month until release. Players very quickly told them a littany of ideas of why this was a terrible idea and that doing this a month before release was a monumentally bad decision. They still went through with it and the result was healing in M+ being way too intensive to the point that a lot of people stopped playing healers. Tanks needed a lot of re-balancing. There was also a ton of mob/boss balance issues, some that even still persist.
Another example, Thundering. First iteration was insanely bad. 2nd and 3rd iterations were slightly better but overall bad. Did Blizzard scrap it after listening to players? Nope, released it and it was met with almost universal hatred to the point that Blizz is now scrapping seasonal affixes. Same thing with Explosive affix. Players absolutely hate it so do they remove it? Nope, double down and make it worse!
Blizzard absolutely uses mechanics in order to get players to sub longer. It’s just a fact. Look at the new upgrade system, in M+ you need to RE-farm all your loot you get from +2-+10. Higher M+ takes longer, thus players will have to spend 3x more time getting their BIS.
WoW IS losing subs. That’s been the problem for a long time. Blizzard keeps pumping development into M+/Raiding and it’s not helping retention of casual players because they have no progression to work towards. Their other big problem is that they design to metrics and that is a bad way to design a FUN game. Take the catalyst releasing 6 weeks after new raid opens. They know players want it right away, but metrics said it increases raid boss kills so they are keeping it as is. No duh it increases raid boss kills because you’re forcing players to do the raids to get set bonus so they can do their preferred activities(PvP/M+) and remain competitive.
It’s weird you assume that players aren’t respectful. Hate to tell you but TONS of feedback on the forums starts off very respectful and constructive. The problem though is that when Blizzard ignores that feedback and goes full steam ahead with the “SS Bad Idea” into the ice berg, players don’t feel respected. Respect is a two way street and when Blizzard doesn’t respect the fan base “You think you do, but you don’t” they sure as heck won’t be respectful back on that topic. Affix feedback was ignored so when it comes to affixes players aren’t going to be respectful.