The Cataclysm revamp was controversial. Personally, I wasn't a fan of it. They wrecked a lot of my favorites zones and not for the better as some were substantially worse to quest through, like Darkshore.

Despite my criticisms of FFXIV, WoW is certainly not the game I want them to emulate when it comes to writing. We're refugees for a reason. :P WoW is the example of what not to do when it comes to killing off characters just for the sake of it. It's not even for shock value anymore. There's even a tweet by the narrative lead of WoW saying he thought the GoT finale was "brilliant".

Something like LotR is fine, but they're not doing LotR. FFXIV applied to LotR would mean that Gollum never turned on Frodo, that Frodo carrying the ring wasn't that much of a burden, that Sam was just there for light hearted moments and friendly competition, and at the end on Mt. Doom there would've been some speech given whereby everyone agrees to toss the ring and then they all return home no worse for wear. Gollum also would've likely ended up being restored to Smeagol somehow too. The hobbits would've remained trauma free, eager and ready for the next adventure.