I think there is a discrepancy between “midcore content in a generic MMO” and “midcore content in 14” entirely driven by how easy 14’s casual content is

If you put most extremes into WOW the WOW playerbase would characterise them as midcore however since 14’s casual content is so damn easy there is still a large enough gulf between the hardest casual content and extremes that it feels like it pushes extremes higher than they actually are

Either casual content needs to be made harder (which is what normal raids and alliance raids used to be as they were optional) or there needs to be another tier added in between like I explained above, you can argue what I explained isn’t really midcore by “generic MMO” standards but that gulf needs to be filled in 14