I genuinely enjoyed vanilla FAR more than TBC.
Even the little things like mobs no longer being elite outside instances when leveling makes the game just feel more hollow.
Gold in general is 100x more easier to farm and feels less impressive when you make 100g. 100g is NOTHING in TBC, you can make that without thinking by doing 2 dungeons and vendoring a bunch of trash.
Flying mounts, and everything about them – although it convenient to zoom around in outlands – is lame af.
The original 2 continents and time it takes to travel actually made the world more immersive. Everything in TBC is too watered down, too convenient, too itemized, too small.
World pvp aside Halaa is dead. At least in phase 1, going into or approaching an enemy faction’s town or transportation was high risk, and fun. That doesn’t exist at all in outlands. No one is there, and the towns themselves are irrelevant. Everyone is in Shattrath.
I’d rather see a vanilla + reboot with TBC talents and level 60 normal cap than TBC itself.
Ironic you call TBC the “superior version of the game” when even you acknowledge its no where near as popular. There is a reason for that, being “more balanced or optimized” doesn’t make a game good.