Listening to Vanilla WoW music and complaining that the sense of adventure is gone from the game sounds suspiciously like a typical, acute case of nostalgia. But (there is always a but) there are enough reasons to believe it isn't just that. Much of the "world" has been taken from the World of Warcraft, owing to flying mounts, dungeon finders, streamlined questing and other such conveniences.
Why did the basics, particularly leveling content, become so fast and easy? Why did Blizzard implement a supertanker-load of "quality of life improvements", when they surely know better than anyone that putting time-consuming and random obstacles in the way of players is the meat and potatoes of any game, especially a MMO?
The most obvious factor is veteran players' complaints that they have been through it and it's ridiculous to have to do it all over again. It's inevitable that once a person understands something, they see the little annoying details as gimmicky and unnecessary impediments ("familiarity breeds contempt").
In the real world there isn't much that can be done. You may no longer be a child awed at the world or an idealist striving towards something; you may think that everything sucks and just want to lie down and sleep all day... but you still have to get up in order to sustain your continued existence. It's not up for discussion.
In WoW, on the other hand, you can go to the forums and argue that it's your God-given right to lie in bed all day, because you're already doing a lot by existing. This argument comes in many different shapes, flavors and magnitudes. You may ask for something as simple as a 10% reduction in the health of a quest mob who's giving you a tough time. Or you may demand free maximum-level gear "because you pay for the game just like everyone else".
Nerfing is a slippery slope, the worst sort of slippery slope: the one where you keep going willingly, because you've bought into the premise. Poison mixing isn't challenging, just a repetitive mandatory meta-game. Attunements are not real checks of a player's skill and dedication, only barriers that unevenly affect new players and casuals. Resistance gear is just a poorly conceived time sink, do away with it. Why is this quest in the middle of nowhere, it's such an unnecessary trek.
This idea that the game can be "improved" by making it more convenient is really just a disguise for a classical human ploy to improve their lot: if playing by the rules seems like too much work, attempt to co-opt the people in charge and make them change the rules to favor you. This goes on until the rules are so out of touch with reality that things begin to give.
This doesn't mean that everyone who wants the game to be easier or less time-consuming is a rent-seeker, or to put it another way, a lazy bastard who just wants free epics. On the contrary, a lot of the people who think so, especially the ones at Blizzard, are really sincere. They believe that making things more accessible will make more people able to get stuff faster, and thus be happier.
Such a view simply assumes that loot is good, and anything that stands in the way of loot is bad. It supposes that players are simpletons, who get home after their daily toil and want to bash some things, earn some shinies and talk smack with their buddies without straining their minds too much. The concept of a dedicated player who faces the game as a challenge to be beaten and a puzzle to be solved becomes ridiculed, as if this were only a tiny minority in a sea of "give me stuff" baboons.
Notice the drastic change in perspective, which was nevertheless accomplished quite subtly. From the idea that it is unnecessary to demand too much from players who have already gone through a lot, the discussion has shifted to a fear of demanding too much from players who are too lazy to help themselves.
This isn't a leap, it's the inevitable result of the "let's just make this more accessible" mindset. It's not unlike charity. It may sound and look pretty, but it has a rather ugly tendency to make its beneficiaries come back for more... and more... and more. They begin to feel like it's the donor's duty to give them stuff. And when he realizes that it's getting ridiculous, and puts his foot down and says "no more", he gets to find out just how nasty those "poor, helpless people" can be.
That is not an attack on poor people or comfort-seeking players in particular. Anyone can acquire comfortable, bad habits and become loath to abandon them. But combine this unpleasant human characteristic with the benevolent desire to alleviate suffering, and you have a peculiarly ugly way of having well-intentioned initiatives go sour. So it is with adding conveniences to a game.
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