i'm about to educate you and let you know people DO like to start from scratch. i am one of them.
Well, I believe you, but I really really think that people like you are the minority wrt sheer numbers. For some anecdotal evidence, several people on the server I play jumped ship and went to LotRO when it was released. Most came back. I myself just tried it recently, because I just wanted to see it. Yeah, it's fun. My friends are in WoW, though, so I came back.
On a related side note: AoC really does not interested me. Someone else up this thread said that sure people will leave WoW for AoC since WoW only incluides lackluster AoC, well, i couldn't be interested less, and I even play on a server with the PvP ruleset.
Or AoC so-called "maturity". Damn, the last time I saw an AoC developer diary video I only thought "oh my god, how immature, they need totally unrealistic gore fountains and actually call it mature?" That is only what some immature people want, imo. I mean, seriously. That is not mature, or appealing to a mature crowd, only to a crowd that is legally allowed to buy graphical depictions of violence and reveling in that fact...