OK, time to debunk this common lie. How everyone plays this game affects everyone else who plays it. Take for example Perma-Archon/Berserker builds, the few people who were really abusing those mechanics affected everyone when those abilities were nerfed and the ability to extend them was pretty much completely removed. What are those of us playing the way it is intended suppposed to do when they start making balance changes based around people having full sets of legendaries from cheesing through normal? So seriously, stop with the "it doesn't affect you" BS, it's not true. This game is being designed by MMO makers, they will continue to make balance changes for everyone based on the few. Most of you have probably played MMOs, can you really say you haven't been nerfed because of someone else exploiting? I'm assuming you weren't the one exploiting...and honestly with this crowd, I'm not sure that's a good assumption.
Your example is more along the lines of players exploiting a bug (I'm not saying "Perma-WotB was exploiting, ban ban ban!"). It was an unintended method of play (EDIT: we can infer this because it was fixed). The runes were probably designed with 'average' stats in mind, not considering astronomical crit-stacking etc, and likely under-tested.
People playing on unchallenging difficulties is obviously (obviously) intended. You yourself say they're MMO-makers. That MMO itself has no lock on backwards progression! By which I mean if I'm in iLevel 600 gear, it doesn't stop me from going back to Mogu-Shan vaults and utterly wrecking face, or soloing level 90 heroics, or previous expansion content. Furthermore, if it was intended that you always be pressing forward on the difficulty curve, you would never have been able to go back from nightmare to normal in the first place! If they did not intend for players to be able to ROFL-stomp old content, it is trivial to make it impossible to turn down the difficulty.
Provided that, it is also trivial to adjust the drop rate for uniques on lower difficulties, but they didn't do that either! They have to know full well, with all the experience from Diablo 2 (observing its history if not hands-on development work), and pre 2.0 Diablo 3 that many players strive to find the most efficient path of conquest, and if they're not going to close off unchallenging content, then if they want players to be 'forced' for efficiency into content that challenges them, then they have to adjust the item drop rates appropriately. They did not. Ergo, your entire premise is a fallacy; it is logically inferrable that this is, in fact, an intended method of play.
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People playing on unchallenging difficulties is obviously (obviously) intended. You yourself say they're MMO-makers. That MMO itself has no lock on backwards progression! By which I mean if I'm in iLevel 600 gear, it doesn't stop me from going back to Mogu-Shan vaults and utterly wrecking face, or soloing level 90 heroics, or previous expansion content. Furthermore, if it was intended that you always be pressing forward on the difficulty curve, you would never have been able to go back from nightmare to normal in the first place! If they did not intend for players to be able to ROFL-stomp old content, it is trivial to make it impossible to turn down the difficulty.
Provided that, it is also trivial to adjust the drop rate for uniques on lower difficulties, but they didn't do that either! They have to know full well, with all the experience from Diablo 2 (observing its history if not hands-on development work), and pre 2.0 Diablo 3 that many players strive to find the most efficient path of conquest, and if they're not going to close off unchallenging content, then if they want players to be 'forced' for efficiency into content that challenges them, then they have to adjust the item drop rates appropriately. They did not. Ergo, your entire premise is a fallacy; it is logically inferrable that this is, in fact, an intended method of play.