Midcore is NOT a Difficulty setting - It's an Investment!

[TemporalFruitsAndVeggies]

Honestly one of the most revealing things in these midcore threads is how many people think it's completely okay to have the rest of the party (especially the healer) make up for their mistakes and think that if you die it only affects you

That's a pretty critical part of what people actually want out of "midcore content," though: a lack of major personal responsibility. You're acting like it's not okay for people to want that, but it's not like there are any rules for what people are allowed to want out of online games.

It's also not like the genre hasn't been trending in that direction, too. It's not the early 2000s anymore. In nearly all FFXIV/WoW/GW2/ESO content other than end-game raiding, personal responsibility is at a minimum; it kind of drives most modern MMO design decisions. Players are spoiled for choice these days. If failure results in tons of lost time, they'll just go play something else where that's not the case.

ETA: I'm not saying this trend is a good thing, FWIW. I like difficult content, personally. Savage raids are perfect for the amount of time I'm willing to put in. More just giving the context for for the trend (surprise, it's $$$).