as far as I know it does have it, and my experience doesn’t match yours-on EU there was 20ish open lobbies (hosted by people) for different custom maps/arcades at all times. but yeah if it was like you are saying it was, I agree with your point. also, check the other reply to your comment from someone who is more up to date
Yeah. He explained it as it was in the early days. Battle.net for Starcraft 2 really destroyed the game from getting popular. It's so sad that the Battle.net from 1998 was better than the Battle.net from 2012... They implemented chat several years after SC2 released. Clans even longer after.
They released it when the online connections were terrible, then everyone left before they got good.