This is my first post here, but I've enjoyed reading this thread. Clearly something some feel passionate about.

What I'd say about the topic is close to what Leverett said in his last post. "Why are there so many clones right now? It's because that's what the market wants...we also aren't the audience that makes up the mainstream market."

A lot of people I know just played single-player games before Blizzard decided to make something for the masses. In a way, how bad it even may sound, right now we have WoW to thank for the attention of the MMO genre. (I didn't say it's the right kind of attention, but it's a start)
Before WoW, I think EQ had about 500k people and that was considered to be about max a MMO could get. But now all bets are off.

Imo developers are indeed getting squishy when it comes to new ideas. However the pressure they're getting from their bosses to deliver must be immense these days. This French proverb depicts their problem: "It might be good in practical terms but in theory it will never work."
And as we all know a succesful businessmodel (theory) is what the money providers ask for these days.

But there's a second problem that I haven't seen come by much here. And that problem is...US.
We are the ones that demand new things. We demand stronger and better challenges. We demand, and expect to get what we want.
But that's the line between rl and in-game. It's here that we should realise, that as we want more and better, those 2 WILL get into conflict. I very much doubt we'll get another shock & awe experience before we get dna-based computers in combination with VR.

But does that mean we can't have fun in the meantime? Definitely not! I have a lot of fun with friends in whatever MMO I like. For me it's the combo of a game I find fun + my friends to play it with. I'm happy to stick with that for now.
However that doesn't mean I'm not crossing my fingers for something way out of left field that might blow me away.