This is classic in a nutshell. It was the spinoff of Everquest ideas which had worse and more punishing modules that were time consuming. Coming from EQ to WoW was a breath of fresh air and these nuances now were actually huge improvements from back then.

I hope you find it enjoyable though if you never experienced it. WoW classic is an entirely different game than what we have now. Myself I'm limited more than ever on time and Retail is sufficient.
If you have time on your hands Classic can swallow it all up and ask for more.