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Ignoring broken content...

Consider the traditional Dungeons and Dragons module: they didn't supplant the previous modules, although they may have been higher level and did provide new content.

Today, MMO publishers believe that in order to keep players, they need to regularly update the shiney with content patches and expansions. To some degree it's true: players have already explored the game world, many several times, and need something to keep them playing the game or bring them back for a time. However, the publisher's deeper motivation will be to bring back that revenue source. Character power isn't capped, it's increased, and the "challenge" is increased to match, all in an attempt to keep the players paying a little longer. New graphics engines, new models, new continents: those are just the shiney features to get the veteran player's attention and incentivize them to buy the box and re-up the subscription.

It makes *sense* to expand the game world concentrically from the newbie area(s). Things get tougher the farther outside those areas you go, and the rewards get larger. Commercial expansions and mudflation, instead, posit that rather than designing a smooth character power curve with a definite ceiling, the game should cause a jump in a graph of character power between those who purchased the expansion and those who didn't. This encourages players to make their characters more powerful. And then, to keep those more powerful characters in-game, to keep the players from getting bored, they have to increase mob difficulty (from small group to full group to small zerg to full zerg) and item drop power (from "does decent damage" to "kills entire newbie zones instantly"). A few days or weeks after the release of the expansion, it's obvious who has purchased it and can continue to be competitive in-game, and who hasn't. It's a vicious cycle, and you're right to criticize it.

I just want to make sure that a smooth progression of character power and expansion of explorable areas isn't dismissed because of how commercial MMOs have mudflated their offerings. The older areas need not be considered "junk" if the new areas are designed with care and consideration of what they do to the overall game.