Why Wow Classic Era is FAR superior to Burning Crusade and WOTLK

Classic enthusiasts can agree that the classic experience is far superior to retail. Where they disagree on is at which expansion the experience started to derail. Most consider BC or WOTLK as peak wow. I want to provide counterarguments for that, because I don't often hear them. I want to make the case that peak wow was actually what is now considered Classic Era, i.e. before Burning Crusade. And I think that a lot of people ditching WOTLK for classic era is only proof of that.So here goes!Flying mounts - The single most important and often overlooked mechanic. Flying mounts completely ruins world PvP because people can just fly away from engagements. It also created a meta where players would skip questing for dungeon grinding (to level), then flyback to do all the quests for the gold/rep. And most importantly, wow is about the journey. Flying mounts allow you to skip the journey. Going from point A to point B on land might seem tiresome, but it often got you into fun little adventures. Now adventure is simply flown over. The most riveting thing you'll encounter on the way to your destination is fog.No auction houses - You must travel to Azeroth to use AH (unless you have the engineering skill). This is completely impractical and just makes it so no one visits the AH anymore. I understand the reason for this was likely A) To give people a reason to go back to Azeroth and B) it would get too congested with only 1 major shared city in BC. But this makes it a bad solution to another problem: the lack of major cities for each faction. Which brings me to my next point ...Shared major cities Winterspring/Tanaris were fun little experiments in Classic Era, in which the city was shared between Ally/Horde. In BC + WOTLK however, it is the only experience. Part of the charm of wow is the competition of the two factions, and the idea of belonging one had as either Horde or Alliance. This is asymmetric game design as its finest and what Blizzard does best (Zerg vs. Protoss anybody?), but this aspect was greatly diminished in BC and beyond.Bad Quest Design - This started in BC and got progressively worse in WOTLK. Many of the quests had novel and inventive mechanics, such as entering a vehicle or firing a turret. Despite the fact that these quests are probably harder to implement, they don't play to the games strengths. Because wow is a glorified turn-based game without much in terms of physics mechanics built into the engine. The vehicle quests also don't allow you to use your character and abilities, which make them feel more like mini games than actual quests. People want to use their characters. Ironically, leaving your character to enter a machine, feels like stepping off the ride for a moment.Items / Gear This is probably one of the most obvious, low-hanging fruit. The item designers really skimped in BC + WOTLK. Pretty much all the items acquired through dungeons and quests are either the exact same model with a different texture, or they are altogether boring and drab. I probably went from 72-76 with the same exact gear on my warrior in WOTLK. There is very little actual item variety if you look closely. Many of the dungeons have very small and limited loot tables e.g. the boss will drop a max of 3 different items for 3 different classes. Heroic dungeons are similarly disappointing. Because of this, the vast majority of dungeon content just gets skipped altogether.Environment and World Design The zones just aren't memorable. Part of the charm of wow classic is that you are a subject in a kingdom (Horde or Alliance) and within that kingdom is farmers, castles, towns, inns etc. with people in them. We just don't get that impression in BC + WOTLK. Everything is very otherworldly and wether intentional or not, it makes the world feel lonely and less alive. In addition, wow classic often allowed you to re-experience prior zones via land-based travel. But since Azeroth is far removed from all the new zones, you never get the opportunity to re-experience the old zones.So those are the major things, but the appeal of Classic Era isn't so easily distilled and summarized. There's thousands of small details that seem overlooked in BC + WOTLK. That said, Classic Era is not without its faults. It also has terrible loot tables in some of the dungeons (although we probably didn't know it at the time in 2006). Some specs are complete garbage. Drop quests are absolutely terrible wastes of time and constant reminders of how susceptible your brain is to the sunk cost fallacy. But all in all, it was a much better experience.As a progressional game designer and developer myself, I like to think there are two types of changes a game designer can make: additive and transformative. Additive changes typically take the form of new content and are generally safe, because you are simply adding onto the experience. Transformative changes are when you change the underlying mechanics in the game itself. Which is of course, dangerous. The trouble is, transformative changes often disguise themselves as additive changes. e.g. who would have though adding flying mounts would take away world PvP. I think where Blizzard went wrong beyond Classic Era is either not understanding or not considering many of their changes were wholly transformative. That is, they added something which took something else away.I have great hope for the idea of Classic+ as i've heard the rumors. I can imagine a world in which new dungeons, raids, gear, classes and content is simply added to the classic experience, instead of the experience being overhauled altogether either by being flung onto a new content, or adding flying mounts.One thing is clear to me and that is new content makes the most commercial sense, as everyone just gets bored of vanilla wow eventually. I believe though new content can be accomplished without damaging the core experience. It just takes a scalpel instead of a sludge hammer, which is what happened to the game with BC and beyond.I often say that playing wow classic (while being conscientious of the mechanics) is like taking a master class in game design. The manner in which is was made, and the game design behind it, should be studied for decades to come. I can only hope that the current people in charge of the IP at Blizzard have the same reverence for it that I do. Because I think they need to understand it thoroughly in order to have a chance of improving and adding to it.