The argument of "player ignorance" can be made about virtually ANYTHING in the game. P99 is usually only trying to recreate the shell of the game as it existed, not changing things based upon player knowledge now. They just want to put into place the exact mechanics that existed back then, so people can see how it worked (and have nostalgia fests). A much better game could be created if they changed their design goal, but that does not seem to be their current goal.
The concept of player ignorance is actually part of why the soft sect of the playerbase got so offended about "kill stealing" in the first place. They weren't trying to play an MMORPG; they went into the game expecting more of a console type experience, with multi-player option. Further, the vast majority of the playerbase back then had little idea about where the best exp spots were, or even where to go at all to level up. So as soon as they found a decent place to exp, they tended to want to stay in that zone. When you combine that with server overpopulation (a big fault on the part of Verant at the time), it lead to some players feeling like they couldn't level up well enough. The level of competition kept getting higher and they couldn't cope with it.
Your core thesis is wrong to begin with, because this topic was talked about ALL over the internet back then, and on the official Everquest message boards. The game developers were fully aware and did not outlaw it until the PnP. It was part of the game. It was part of pretty much every MUD in existence before EQ existed, which is what the game was based on.
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