That is a REALLY controversial take if you ask people who play warcraft these days

Two things. First, public servers have always been the default for MMOs, and by their nature it makes sense to have it. Only today did I learn about things like "realm shifting", and I find that even more cancerous. So there is some level of exemption that MMOs garner by their very nature.

Secondly, why would I care about people from "these days"? Most people "these days" are morons who either weren't playing back then, or they got used to the cancer and forgot how much better it used to be.