I remember the first days I played Warcraft, maybe a year or two after it came out, but it was at a friends house and I had wanted it ever since, I finally got it last year for Christmas, and then finished the campaigns in not too long, but after that I wasn't sure what to do, so I played melee games online, which eventually lead to my discovery of custom games, I forget exactly how, but was somehow linked to WC3Campaigns, and then joined up. I learned a thing or two about mapping, but found that they seemed very 'uptight' as you say, but not so much to me, I posted my skin in WIP and it was pretty bad, but only one person flamed me, and the others were just straight with me, which I very much appreciate, but I knew about the Hive, and didn't really want to join, because WC3C did feel 'elite' and I knew the Hive had a lot of members, and was sort of turned off by that. But after a while, WC3C turned out to not be helping me much and sort of inactive it seemed overall and then I joined the Hive, which I found out was a very friendly place and good start for noobs, and now I have been here ever since, and have sort of abandoned WC3C because it seems much worse than when I left it, so I now prefer this site, sure it has lots of people, and lots of noobs, and not all of the work is up to WC3C standards, but it is a much more pleasant place. So, ya I think that WC3C is still in an undesirable place.
P.S. Sorry for my life as a Warcrafter, but I felt like telling my story, and it is still somewhat relevant to the post