I never did the old raids specifically for gold, there was always a transmog I was after, but getting the gold was definitely a nice bonus.
If more people have a lot of gold, more people will buy game time WITH gold, which means that Blizzard will earn 20€ from someone who buys that token FOR gold. Everyone wins if gold is more easily farmable. And there will always be people who will buy the token for gold, no matter how easily farmable it is.
Edit: apparently it’s been reverted, so, that’s good!