You never played Vanilla. Raids were almost impossible for over 90% of the players in the beginning. There are professional WoW players today, who are sponsored. It was designed for hardcore and casual players. With the Addons it got more and more casual friendly.

Soulbound items did exactly the opposite, materials were still traded and when it was crafted there was no resell value. That meant the demand stayed high. The economy was also influenced trough expensive mounts and auction taxes. It may be not as complex as EVE, but big because everyone participated in it.