No, the community took the “mmo” feeling out of retail. Plus, cross realm zones, phasing, the rush to endgame content mentality, we’re now HERO’s and not adventures, DUNGEON and RAID finder, Legendary handouts, class homogenziation, the cata world revamp and later mindset of main story that made the leveling experience 99.9% a solo experience took the MMO out of retail.
Being able to purchase vellum’s off the AH was purely a QoL update and did not take the MMO feeling away from retail. Not even the least. It actually helped enchanters make more money too. So it help the economy because more players went the enchanting way.