No one joins a guild because they want to join a guild. Especially a raiding guild. There is only one reason to ever join such a guild. To get what you want out of the game.
Socializing? Bullshit.
Making friends? Liar.
Enjoying content with like-minded folks? Your pants are on fire.
Get in, get what you want, and get out. Planning to leave? Spend all your DKP! Can’t get your alt into runs? Don’t offer to run some alt-raids, just play alts in other guilds and leave the moment you aren’t getting what you want. Don’t like how the guild policies work? Quietly grumble under your breath and tolerate the guild stepping on your freedoms to get loot until you can’t take it and bail.
WoW isn’t about being friends or having fun. WoW is about greed.
It’s true, and the system encourages this. The only tangible character advancement at the level cap is in loot acquisition, so of course most people fixate on this. Any socializing they engage in and any new content they beat is tangential to this goal.
It’s a game mechanic designed to exploit basic human nature, and it’s partially why WoW is so wildly successful. The ability to channel this greed effectively is what makes high end raiding guilds so good at what they do.
Isn’t this inconsistent with your view of the best guild structure being a dictatorship?
If a player can’t vote over the structure with their policies/they vote with their feet.
But, I believe you can play WoW for fun and for socializing. It’s just harder to do that within a raiding-centric guild.
I don’t think the best guild structure is a dictatorship. The ONLY guild structure the game allows is a dictatorship.