How is it ridiculous? Developers are avoiding it like the plague for a good amount of time, because they also see flying as a tool works like a cheat code.
It doesn’t simply let’s you to skip ahead, it let’s you to ignore the entire terrain. Why would devs want to put a road, mountain, hill, river, stairs… etc if our average Joe is going to fly over all of it?
The terrain and mobs isnt content, it’s just the game world.
You’re so deep in the blizz juice they’ve actually tempered you into thinking the basic world is content!
The content is whats taking place in that world.
Points of interest and interactables.
High mob density designed ONLY to prolong Your A to B isnt content. It’s just a design Choice.
Blizzard didn’t make me to think anything. This is what i look in a big open world game. To me, the world itself is content. All the terrain, mobs, obstacles… etc. The world is not designed to prolong your notion of content either, it is you who see everything else non-content.
What if they gave us some maps filled with brown or green, like they did it in MSpaint, put some mobs over here and there? But lots of hard things to do… Would you like it better?
Personally, i like the game world itself and everything in it; all the terrain hills rivers stairs obstacles, the music, the sound and visual effects…etc etc… All of these are content and if wow didn’t have these, i wouldn’t play the game.
Liking flying does not mean people don’t like the terrain or visuals. It means they’ve explored on the ground and now is the time to do it from the skies.
We even used to get specific content you could only reach at max level with flying. Now things have changed, we have pathfinders and they use it as a means to compromise between the pro and anti flying players in the game.
Imagine playing mmorpg and complain about grinds. Some people seriously play wrong type of game.
If this was a single player game, i wouldn’t care. But since the game is a multiplayer game, and since players don’t know what they want, what they don’t want, what is good for them,what is good for others, what is good for the game and gameplay and they certainly don’t think about all of these at the same time, you can’t jsut say ‘‘we already explored it’’.
I see people come with Stormpeaks or Icecrown as zones made flying in mind, ‘‘it was beautiful art, they were beautiful zones, Blizzard should make zones like that and give us flying asap…’’. But i remember that those zones were extremely unpopular, and most of the time i would see very few people there, people wouldn’t level there. It wasn’t like how people try to portray in forums. Those zones were empty.
I can’t be asked so can you do me a favor and not buy it for both of us?
I know its hard for some anti flyers to understand that others like different things. Flying absolutely has a place in a multiplayer game. I can also say i know exactly what I want. I can also say that I do explore every nook and cranny while grounded on my main when I do new content. I do every quest and side quest I can find. I used to then buy flying at max level and then explore from the skies. I find flying incredibly immersive. Controlling my own mount, being able to see everything from up high. I take so many screenshots.
I don’t remember Icecrown or Stormpeaks being unpopular. I enjoyed levelling in both. I still see people in those zones today when I level through. Maybe you didnt like them due to your aversion to flying. TBC and MoP had max level areas that required flying to get to.
Like i said before, Pathfinder is the compromise between the two camps that neither really likes 
In all honesty, I don’t buy the “want you to see their design” argument, if that was the case, they could have done it like in FF14 and give you flying per zone, given that you’ve explore that zone and collected a bunch of orbs or something. Once you’ve explore the zone, you’d get flying.
No, the only reason they are desperate to keep hold on pathfinder, is their need to slow people down enough for their “content” to last. Meaning they can design less content, that will last just as long because people have to wade through a metric ton of daze galore mobs and navigate a god awful zone lay-out (Nazjatar almost broke my sanity) . That’s their only reason.
What would be a compromise? Give flying after 6 months into the expansion, but only in the initial areas. When releasing their inevitable new areas, there is a 2 months wait using their favourite “time gate” until you can unlock flying there.
Lets face it, after 6 months in the initial zones, you’ve done the zone and explored it to death anyway. Allowing to fly then is a convenience that doesn’t come with any other benefit than getting around the zones without wanting to gnaw your hands off.
Where did you get i am anti-flyer? I love flying. I am against it to be available from the beginning. I don’t support no-fly or fly asap, i support pathfinder as it is now. It is exactly what i like. I am actually grateful for it to, otherwise i would skip lots of zones, especially Suramar.
Icecrown and Stormpeaks were empty when it was current despite the fact you could fly and i was playing in a full server. People leveling in those zones nowadays is not the same thing since overall accesibility in game has been increased.
Flying isn’t the default state. Flying is to give players a different experience and speed things up. Not being able to fly doesn’t mean they are trying to slow down players lol, it means the game is being played as intended.
yeah paying big amount of gold 
which you had to farm anyway. its was big amount in tbc and it was big in wotlk, didnt play rest.
its always unlocked in X.2 patches. no one forces u to stay subbed, you can always sub in x.2 patch and get flying.
not really, 110-120 takes 2 zones at the most. nothing more nothing less.
I miss flying at max but its never coming back.
Sharding can make even the most current zones seem empty. I’m not a fan but i dont know how else they can do it. Maybe increase the capacity of shards.
I remember even when we all just started doing the broken shore (island bit near new dala) as new content it seemed so empty. I have the same in the pyramid hub now. I can be quite lonely in one shard yet busy in another. Its bizarre.
I never skipped any zone with or without flying. However those who dont want to explore never will. Same as some will read and absorb all quest text and others will use an addon that plans their most optimal route auto accepting and handing in to save time. My idea of hell
One thing blizzard has thought me - “NEVER” never means never. Yes, that’s a lot of nevers in one line, but in case of our dear overlord Blizzy, never is merely state of current mind and means “not now”.
That is very true but I think with the ability to buy gold it would be like selling flying for money. The achievement means everyone has to endure the grind.
But you are correct, you never know, things could change.
Just to add this here too :
Blizzard 
I do wonder what finally convinced them.
pulls Puny closer and whispers mmmmoooonnneey… ssssshhh ! 
Flying was the default state after max level since The burning crusade. It continued being the default state up until Warlords. For some strange and obscure reason, they decided that for WoD they changed that default formulation, taking away something people had crown accustomed to.
Flying was introduced as a means of transportation, to navigate a world they’ve already experienced on the ground. In Wrath they even made 2 zones evolve around flying, giving flying at 78 instead of max level so you could level the 2 last levels revolving around flying.
The only reason to not allow flying, is to slow things down. There’s no other valid reason. wPvP? Heck if that’s the case then let warmode turn flying off when activated, let the PvPers wallow in their own misery in getting ganked and let the PvErs fly high as they want. So tell me, why not allow flying for PvE to be bought at max level as we used to?