I guess it is a mix of both, that's probably the best way to put it. You also have to put every MMORPG that does their "classic versions" into their own contexts.
Let's focus on Classic WoW first. When it released and even before that in Beta it was called the casual MMO because it streamlined things like quests, combat and because of its comic like art style. It was also designed for max level content to actually be the focus with quite a lot to do at 60. It was difficult enough in the mid 2000s for hardcore players to switch over from EQ and co., those who realized WoW took their problems and changed them, and easy enough for new players to easily get into it. Add to that a relativey easy-on-the-eye interface, addon support and an immersive world with backstory from three RTS games.
People who are in their early 30s/late 20s now were in their early or late teens then, when vanilla was the game. Back then you had plenty of free time and if you were openly into gaming back then you were actually more of a social outcast outside of your own group of friends than anything else.
I remember that even in late 2008 when Wrath came out, one of the "cool kids" from 6th grade told me and two other friends that his father took him to the midnight release. While I loved hearing about it they were shocked and mocked him for quite some time for playing PC games outside of CSS, especially WoW. That also didn't help because WoW is easy to get addicted to.
Anyway, part of remembering classic is remembering the easier times. No matter if your real life at that time was bad or good. Most certainly the time you had ingame was great and that's what you fondly remember. Now, games are rather the norm. If you ask anyone out in the street if they play a game, you'll hear things like Fortnite, League, Smite, CSGO etc. and I wanna bet most won't be embaressed about it. Try that 10-14 years earlier and you won't find many teens and young adults admitting to liking games nd playing them regularly. Also, back then basically everyone was a noob. Websites similarly to wowhead, icy veins and co. were scarce at best back then. That kept a lot of the flow of information server side and you were forced to communicate if you wanted to find out what's best for what situation. Forums were the best shot you'd get and in the 2000s most of them were usually pretty shitty to look things up in(heck, most still are now).
As soon as the flow of information outside of the game became more known and easier to access, so did the community change. With old, more "hardcore" MMORPGs dying or sitting in the shadow of WoW and fast-paced games that don't require long attention spans there was no need anymore for WoW to be a better version of other old MMORPGs but rather to keep as many people as possible interested.
You can't blame them if the market analysts around Anno 2008-2010 tell the dev team that their old target audience of the last 5 years has become older and can't commit to the time required to do X and Y anymore while the "newteens" like fast paced gameplay and short intervals of playtime. Heck, for some people 15 minutes of Heroes of the Storm games are too long.
BfA has glaring problems that I won't discuss here but there's azerite armor of course. It's again, easier to think back at the good times where you didn't know which problems were which. You wouldn't know if azerite armor was shit or not if you weren't running around on class discords, reddit, X dozen WoW youtube channels. Those things did not exist in 2005(thottbot did, though).
I guess we need to find some middle ground. The old versions of the games have their appeal, especially for people who want to invest lots of time into an MMO with set gear drops where you can reach a definitive end. Heck, even I would love the old Wrath/Cata style of gearing with bags/valor and justice points being able to be traded in for gear. That's an aspect I like about FFXIV.
We need a step back from RNG, that's certain. Remember when snapshotting got removed? Warlocks and Shadow Priests remember. Remember when they "fixed" the "bug" that caused all your procs go off at the start of an encounter in WoD after over 10 years of it existing? I do. Remember when they chsnged warforging from being a small bonus of 6 item levels reserved for normal+ raiders in MoP and a majority of WoD to becoming one of the most controverse topics of the last THREE, almost FOUR years in the game's existence? I do.
I can understand the need to keep sub numbers. WoW has shaped the lifes of millions of people I'd say and it shouldn't fall into oblivion just like that. But the dev team should realize that, while WoD's problems were the lack of content, BfA's are the lack of polish of the content.
Anyone who played WoW over all those years can't possibly not be biased either against or for Classic WoW - it's not possible. For a long time I hated on the private server community and their "backward" thinking. Now, I don't do that anymore. There are reasonable aspects about what is/was good about former versions of the game.
I wonder if I can start a discussion with this that won't end up in a circle jerk.
On one hand you have the memories of a time where