I think they did plan to please everyone. I think the only thing that stuck was what people attribute to 'hardcore' (though I'd just say 'good') players. The raids and silver+ dungeons. If you were a mediocre player, who didn't like PVP, and didn't have friends or a guild to play with, you weren't going to have fun. It's not being hardcore. You didn't need to spend much time at all to get into GA or complete GA. You just had to have a competent group of people with decent gear. That gear wasn't even the top dungeon gear like it should've been. It was all crafted gear that anyone could've purchased/crafted.
Hardcore would've meant more of a time investment than the 4+ hours it takes to clear GA a week and the other 2-4 hours a week to cap gems and/or do dailies.
They said that the raid was for the 1% for months before release. They said most people wouldn't make it. That was true. They were pretty fucking accurate, actually. I honestly don't know what they could've done for casuals. People probably would like a token system like WoW where they can run adventures or dungeons over and over and save up to buy something. That was elder gems. The gear was there. People wanted 'better' (not really because crafting beat out 70% of raid loot) gear that they saw from GA. Mostly the weapons because weapons contributed like 30% of your overall AP/SP.
I'm not hardcore. I'm in Arche Age right now half-assing it. I just liked doing Wildstar because beating a dungeon, beating a boss, no matter how many times you've done it, felt challenging. I still remember our first Stormtalon kill. It took us probably 10 hours on that fuck. Probably 40 wipes. Because we weren't geared and we weren't specced and we didn't understand every aspect. But the first kill was sweet. In fact, the second kill was sweeter because it meant it wasn't a fluke and we had actually learned the fight. I'm sure a lot of people here who made it in GA can tell you how good it felt to actually down Kuralak or Convergence or Ohmna. Nothing I've ever done in WoW compared to Convergence in terms of micro management. So many different things, that change weekly, that you have to adapt to. Only 5-10 people in our raid would have the same role each week regardless of the combination.
This game was hard, or at least, challenging, if you didn't exploit it. That's the reason I enjoyed it. I would wager most people that complain about this game complain for that reason. They couldn't hack it. Whether it was gear, grouping options, or actual skill they just didn't have access to the most complete part of the game. The veteran dungeon+/raid level.
For those of us that made it there are other reasons that made it a badly managed games. In my mind the bugs, exploits (GCD exploitation and multi-casting), and poor itemization were the biggest problems of this game.
Bosses would randomly cycle their phases sometimes ruining silver runs or wiping raids. Some items just didn't work with specials unless re-equiped after every death. Shit was dumb. They had to slow content release because of stuff like that. They fixed 3 things and broke 5 things almost every patch.
Macro programs allowed people to bypass GCD and multi-cast shit that made medics and engineers god-mode. Other classes quit or rerolled because of stupid shit like that. And for the large part they were just ignored after these exploits were fixed. No justice.
Items in GA weren't up to par, or at least, it didn't seem so to most. People just stacked AP. That was the easiest way to improve your DPS. Stack AP. It doesn't require math to do, just go from 1800-2100 and you're doing better! Because of this a lot of people thought GA gear was shit. Some was. A lot wasn't. People would let shit get salvaged because they'd gain 1% crit and lose 15 AP. Smart people understand this was an upgrade, but for the general chat reading ignorant public that was bad. Cuz AP not as high. This was one of the major reasons the people capable of GA stopped doing GA. They just didn't feel the rewards were there. There were those Datascape golden-colored-stat-bombs waiting for people after GA, but not many could field 40 people with 6/6 who could stay together for that. So people beat bosses then quit. Game was over. GA was impossible.
These are the reasons this game sucked for those of us who put lots of time into it. I would have LOVED to seen PVP improved. Daggerstone was kind of fun, but very long and added during a problematic PVP stat patch. Warplots never existed. My hope was to make a zone with Warplots where Dom could fight Exile and there'd be some sort of player limit. Like a non fucked up SWTOR Illium, but if that is ever to come it'll be months from now.
Basically I just think people were butt-hurt they didn't get attuned or didn't get 6/6 or didn't get DS or whatever, and that's where most of the criticism comes from. I'm sure people will disagree. That's fine. But for me I think this game had the most potential of any game I've played. With a retuned PVP and crafting systems, I'd definitely be willing to sub 15 dollars credd or no credd.