MMOs are just so expensive to develop now that innovation is almost dead. You either make a WoW-like or you die (and many times you die anyway). They really don’t make MMOs like they used to.
It was such a special thing before it was hit with a lot of road grading over the 15+ years of monthly patching that smoothed a lot of the rough edges that made it really unique.
I look at this differently. I think the extreme cost of an MMO should force innovation. Take the constraints for what they are and run with them. Accepting that you can't do it the "traditional" way is the first step to figuring out a better way.
There is nothing that says a high-quality WoW killer absolutely must cost 10 figures to produce.