Cartoonish is the kind of art that Blizzard uses on Warcraft since Warcraft 3, I simply dont see you point here
I agree on the other things thought, with the exception of RIFT, that svcked, well, at least the BETA
Except that RIFT beta was better than WoW in every way. No flying (the best one of all), no fast travel to most places via flight paths or portals, having to actually travel to a dungeon instead of just standing around town, more interesting classes, a more interesting storyline with two factions have have actual reason to be at war, no arena, reasons to explore off the beaten path, puzzles to find, no pop culture references or humor (there's the occasional exception but it's not plauged with them like WoW) etc. The graphics are just the icing on the cake.
Cata ruined my enthusiasm for WoW which was already waning before it's release.
Stop focusing on arena, stop nerfing everyone but mages trying to balance pvp, and stop catering to the hardcoe players at the expense of the larger more casual crowd.
Like someone said on the forums during beta: "I think Regulos is cooler than Deathwing. He unleashed the shade, all Deathwing did is cause me to stop playing."
I'm gonna log in to WoW today though and see if I got anything for my 1st anniversary.