Because leveling that would be oh so fun. The things OP mentioned are not in any recent MMO because they don't make a good game, or decent money. Look at Wildstar for an example of "hard core" and see how well that worked out.
They (the rose tinted nostalgic group who think it works today) are the minority as proven by the other MMO attempts (again Wildstar, Darkfall, Archage) that failed. Then they get what they want and it's too hard.
