dark is still pretty damn dark if you're playing a race without infravision / ultravision and you leave the gamma slider set to a normal level. my human paladin can't see in the qeynos aqueducts without a lightsource if the gamma is set to anything under 75%.
yeah, its sad, but the biggest reason to play on red is that blue is so bloated. it just sucks dealing with all the sociopaths on red once you hit the higher levels.
FBSS and AC aren't totally locked down. you might have to sit there and stare at the screen for several hours waiting for whoever is currently at the camp to leave. but that's not that different than classic.
now, the raid scene.... ugh.
or hell don't even need to do that.... check the P99 thread, Secrets just posted a Lite client with all the useless stuff from later expansions stripped out. its like half a gig.