Anyway, this is getting derailed here people! Back to why WoW sucks!
WoW does not suck.
WoW is the blatant demonstration at how a copycat, mediocre graphics MMO with limited potential can become THE blockbuster if managed by competent people.
Istaria is the blatant demonstration at how the best and still most potential TODAY of every MMO ever made can become the vastly under-estimated fall behind of all because in the past it has been in the hands of under-capitalized, shady management.
WoW does its dirty job of being another Blizzard money wagon maker with no big pretense, you can clearly see expansion after expansion how they humbly COPIED others ideas (ie EQ and later Warhammer Online for achievements and more).
WoW attracts the kind of wholesale idiots who make up for 99% of the world population, that's a design objective of WoW, not a design defect and does it admirably.
I wish Istaria attracted 10k players. That would change things a lot and would finally give it a chance to express itself.
Istaria is getting old without being given a chance to show off. Graphics are too obsolete, network code too unresponsive, mechanics too outdated, economy not existant. Yet in powerful hands it could have become a Great Game with 500k subs, something of the class of LOTRO.
Istaria will be forever a true pain for me to recall, because I love it so much and now its current developers love it so much but I don't see a realistic way back to popularity and therefore to growth, funding etc.