Glazunov: Regarding game simplicity, van Caneghem (who originated and made all the good Might & Magic games) once told me that yes, there was an increase an ease-of-gameplay between M&M II and III. As he put it, they simply wanted to widen the market. So, for that matter, did SirTech when they introduced colorful screens and in-game mapping. Cleve's rant against dumbing down is just more of his usual provocation--which he knows is ridiculous, because Grimoire has a number of "dumbing down" features (according to his own rhetoric) that he even boasts about in his trailer as promoting ease-of-use.
But he was always good at PR, and at least two-thirds of that is nonsense.
Auto-mapping is very interesting example. Mapping dungeons by hand used to be part of the gameplay, so the introduction of auto-mapping can be seen as a sign of Decline.
However, there is huge difference between early Wizardry (1-5) and the late Wizardry (6,7).
In the early Wizardry the dungeon is really a MAZE. Dungeon architecture doesn't make any sense. It is designed to confuse the player with nasty things like black zones, spinners and teleporters. Finding your way is even more important, because you can't rest in the dungeon - you have to go back to town if you want to rest or level up, so navigation is super important and it's big part of gameplay. In this case auto-map can be seen as "dumbing down" and removing elements of gameplay.
In the later Wizardry dungeons aren't that complicated. They are supposed to look like real places, with straigth corridors and room here and there. Also, you can rest anywhere, so the navigating the dungeon isn't that important. In this case addition of auto-map isn't that big deal.
Cleve made Grimoire as a Wizardry 7 successor, so auto-mapping in this context isn't Decline.