Just wanted to share a few thoughts on why classic quest design, while sparse - is quite enjoyable. Especially in hardcore.

I reckon that sparseness also allows us to fill in the gaps with our imagination, and do some exploring. While in retail the quests are designed to "pop" and be a little zany keep us entertained while we're on the treadmill.

In Modern WoW we're so dead-eyed mindlessly levelling to get to max level content Blizz went the route of making the quests eye-catching, when the opposite direction - making us slow down and pay attention works very well even if it seems out-dated.

While I love a good story and characters like anyone else, a bit of space matches well with the pace classic hardcore encourages like when WoW was originally released - a lot of not knowing what's around the next corner and if it'll kill us.

That sparseness and deadliness also means a lot of serendipitous encounters with other players! Not as many quality of life features, even having to walk everywhere as a lowbie means more chances to meet other players.

Generally being a more deadly levelling experience and good gear quest rewards being few and far between forces examining our resources and looking out for any useful drops rather than trying to get through content as fast as possible.