lol, they still don't get it.
This should be Free-to-Play for everyone. Those of us that remember the "Classic" era and have moved on from WOW, are not going to start new subscriptions just to relive those days.
The biggest games in the world right now are free to play, and these guys are still trying to get people to pay $15 a month.
Game companies monetize their games through three methods.
They charge monthly subscriptions and/or they focus heavily on a cash shop and/or they regularly release paid DLC addons.
While I've only dabbled in WoW a few times but never got anywhere close to "high level" or "end game", the game is still extremely popular and one of the reasons so is that they do not put everything behind a cash-shop/loot-box paywall.
The reason games like Fortnite, PUBG, Apex Legends, etc. are popular is because they use the "drug recruitment" approach of offering the game for free so they can hook a lot of young players into playing and then hit them with skins, upgrades, unlocks, etc. once they are hoked.
At least with subscription games that do not push loot boxes and other must-have upgrades in their cash shops, you know you're spending a set amount of money and that's it. A lot of gamers appreciate a flat rate subscription fee.
Every time I have tried a free to play game, or even buy to play in many cases, it turned into a beg-a-thon or spam-a-thon for the game's cash shop items.
For example, Fortnite is free to play but EA made $2.4 billion from it in 2018. Doesn't sound like much a "free" game to me.
I heard a comedian joke the other day talk about how he could only afford a "free dog" but then realized later that the dog was not "free", it was just given to him for free. The real expense of owning the dog came after he had the dog when he had to spend a lot of money on vet bills, food, etc. for the dog.
As for WoW Classic, unlike other companies that have simply locked post-launch content out of their current games (which have changed considerably over the years) and labeled them classic/launch versions, Blizzard actually spent months rebuilding the original game.
While I don't plan to play it, I have kept up with it and it's amazing the effort Blizzard has gone through for Classic.