they fucked it up many years ago, it's just that the fanboys can't be blinded by it anymore.
merging with activision and buying king (ie: candy crush) - should it really be any surprise? d3 was fucking awful and then years later, they made new chars for it... that had to be bought? blizzard sold out long ago and the diablo "IP" has already been shit.
that said, this "reveal" was fucking weird - because it seems like they truly didn't expect this kind of response.
i'm amazed that no one's really stepped up to fill the arpg void/compete with poe (which obviously reigns supreme, at this point) - especially since poe's quality has dropped substantially, too. it seems like such a weird market/time in gaming. there are these obvious voids that seem to be guaranteed money for competent devs to work with - but the devs seem to have bought the anti-gg rhetoric and have been pompous, smugly asshats. it's not like blizzard is alone in this regard, there seems to be a major dev telling the gamers/potential customers to fuck off regularly (ie: the PR disasters of battlefield v, mass effect, etc).
blizzard did just take it to a whole new level, though - by doing this shit AT their own convention, full of their biggest fanboys. ffs, these people traveled to be there (and presumably got/bought tickets) and then were belittled with that shitastic 'you all have phones, right?'
imo, the biggest factor in the recent trend is the whole trigglypuff/gamergate/echo chamber nonsense that went mainstream. people are fucking morons and have their heads further up their asses than ever before. and they seem to think they have some righteous justification for it. as if even criticizing their obviously/objectively bad decisions is somehow "toxic." they blame everyone else for their own actions, as if us gamers are just obligated to throw piles of money their way so they can shovel shit at us.