As one of those "stupid !*!#ers" i have to disagree ;)
I'm not speaking for all stupid !*!#ers but i in fact played the game(too much actually). I experienced nearly all raid content, and i arena'd and participated in battlegrounds all too often. I spent all of my time while not doing those things in front of an AH, often between queues or whatever. It's much less time consuming than farming, and actually a lot less mindless than farming. Also its extremely profitable. Towards the end before i quit in Cata i was pushing 5-10k in a day with maybe 30mins of playing the AH. I always had way more gold than i knew what to do with, and i like never having to worry about gold in games. If i wanted to buy something for myself or any one of my friends i liked not having to worry about affording it. :)
problem is you should never hit the top when you are playing a mmo, that kinda defeats the purpose. i hit the ceiling in wow then quit, yeah like im going to go from naxx 40 to playing the AH. Thats what im talking about when i say gameplay.
Worrying about affording stuff? Anything thats actually "worth anything" is not ever going to be on an AH, if it is its just to show boat. Good stuff is pretty much priceless.
I play the game to play the game, the only thing i ever needed in wow was better loot, and nothing on the AH ever compared to top end gear. Your guild should be providing you with the loot, not some AH. Then your gold is meaningless and just piles up.
Kind of like these sellers, since they dont play the game all their gold is meaningless (less your planning on ebaying it which is what happens) Then i tell you to get a real job.
And if you really were on the apex of content you woulnt ever have to worry about the gold.