I think I can be the middle man here. As I understand both sides. On one hand, are the fights fun with full on mechanics, instead of fighting a training dummy. Of course. The main issue, I think is the community. I have been in countless PF parties and have seen people harassed for not enough dps, bad gear, or making silly mistakes in a PRACTICE run. Instead of moving on and trying again, like a functioning static would. You will see things like "GG scrub" or "have fun in savage".

Then everyone argues, and instead of learning the fight. Everyone will just disband. The stress of this puts people off, and I feel thats why some of the players on this forum seem intimidated by this midcore content.