Skill left the game a long time ago after AOS. Those who have the best gear and tweaked their CheatEngine correctly are the ones who will win anymore. There are a diminishing few people who understand how the game was before AOS, so it's hard to describe the "feeling" of the game in those days. It's a shame the game turned into what it has, however it did open up the possibility for many other people to start playing. For starters, I could finally recommend my family to play with the introduction of the Renaissance expansion because I wouldn't have to worry about my Mom getting ganked by all the dudesters out there.
I can't describe what life was like without insurance to ya; you just have to live those days. In my opinion, I don't want to get rid of insurance, but I want to make it hurt ya if you loose your gimped gear in PvP. It doesn't make sense to do that with PvM, although with the ease at which gold is gotten these days I think the 600 gold/item charge is way too little.