I do not want to start talking about what I do or do not do in a professional capacity

Fine, I'll talk about my background.

I've worked or run IT for various companies, including two major fast food companies, three government agencies (state and federal) and one unusual online auto parts concern. Initially I would have agreed with you on this topic. But after befriending someone who worked for a recently sold and renamed gaming company (hint: rhymes with pony) I can tell you, trying to not get to technical, that what needs to be addressed and covered by the ***-on-Fire Squad goes far deeper in an MMO than in most other software applications. The impact varying hardware configurations, varying software and driver configurations, varying connectivity options and user generated chaos is far more profound in games, especially MMOs.

Most have no idea the depth and breadth of testing that goes into these games....and how much slips through, because its virtually impossible in terms of time and cost to cover every possible variance.

All MMO's have their issues, and their downtimes, especially after new updates. Some, for a variety of reasons, are longer than others. Contrary to your experience, I can assure ESO isnt even in the bottom ten for downtime issues. I can tell you that their method of using so called megaservers does NOT help the issue.

Game needs to go offline for a few months, maybe even a year, get all the kinks and balance issues worked out and then come back online.