Meh, I think Vince is just going with the Brian Frons approach of "training the audience."
I used to cover soaps for my day job and I see a lot of parallels between how Vince is running things and how Brian Frons ran things during his tenure at ABC Daytime. Basically it boils down to a strategy of building a base among newer consumers by giving them more of what they want, accepting that there will be a loss of "casual" viewership who aren't as invested in the product and will tune out b/c they don't like the changes, and "training" long time viewers to accept the current product and continue watching, even if they are unhappy by pushing forward instead of reversing course back to the "good old days."
And while it sounds arrogant af when laid out like that, it isn't entirely off base when it comes to generational programming, especially in a niche market. There's an entire generation of fans who weren't even born or old enough to remember the Attitude Era. For them, these "flippy vanilla midgets" ARE their WWE. It's what they like, what they want, and what they enjoy. Casual fans who aren't overly attached tune out entirely, others drop to part time viewers and others only watch or attend shows on special occasions when someone like Undertaker is going to show up. And the people who are so invested they drop money on shows, merch, signings, the Network, ect? The majority of those folks aren't going anywhere, no matter how displeased they are. They may voice their displeasure but will continue to watch/support and eventually come to a point where even if they hate it... They accept that this is the way it is.
and the follow up Kane-abortion gimmick), and after those ratings dried up and people got sick of watching him kiss people's ass or make people kiss his ass, or Rikishi's Stinkface, he tried to make things more "PG" in order to turn the WWE into a mill for Hollywood stars. 
