Well, most of the issues are because of players. Being hypercompetitive makes buying gold, botting, etc. more common. The game is quite similar, the players aren’t and sadly never will be, which is why we have so many threads asking Blizzard to bring in retail features.
Now, if I were to nitpick something in your post, I’d go for “I refuse to pay for the transfer if I did not cause bad functionality and balance of the server” - you stopped playing for a few months, which affected the server balance. Sure, you were not the only one, but I’d say you might be at least partially responsible (in a very small part, but still). Once your faction noticed that the amount of players was dropping they chose to escape the sinking ship instead of getting stuck on a dead realm. Sometimes even a single guild moving can trigger a mass exodus, so dozens of players disappearing over a few months could have as well. I’m not saying that you should not have stopped if you did not want to play, but after observing realm migrations over Classic and TBCC it is definitely something I’d prepare myself for if I were to leave for a few months.