I think the big reason people like to play the 70 levels is because it gives more a feeling of legitimate accomplishment, and the dynamic when you do something fun with some friends that you can then talk about the next day about how you 'just barely pulled through that terrible train you called a pull!' etc etc... That being said I think you touched on a good point which is that everyone always says to go read the wikki, which I think is a good idea that most people don't both trying... which leads to the frustration on the end of those that try to help, because they end up answering the same questions a billion times (Wait... you're saying I should get titanium and not patch to live? What difference does it make? why can't you do it BETTER?... etc...) and yes.... even the nicest people get pretty short tempered in that situation.
All that being said though, the wikki seems to be outdated on some very important areas, like how to set up a server (last I checked which has been a little while I'll admit) and although all the information is availible, it is only availible to those that know where to find it... you need to sift through sections to find helpful tid bits and put them together yourself most of the time... Really the best part of the wikki is the use by the coders and the database workers, because they really know how to take useful bits and leave the outdated parts... But to a guy that doesn't have any idea what is good or what is outdated, it can be a maze...
Point of the story? Stop complaining about it and fix it... thats what makes a wiki great, you can update it. I would do so myself if I had time, which is unfortunately the excuse most people use, but in a project like this it's the unavoidable byproduct... We're a ragtag group of people doing work in our free time... which isn't terribly often nowadays at least for me
and... thats that. /rant off.