The Status Quo was stale back in WarCraft 3, that’s why that game functionally did away with it and ended up having four campaigns. Because just a Horde and a Alliance campaign would have been too narrow a focus.
Biggest problem with the Faction War is it has to mean something. Garrosh reigniting the conflict with the Alliance made sense. Varian was no fan of the Horde, tensions had been ratcheting throughout three expansions. The build up made sense and it lingered across two expansions. It wasn’t just one and done.
Then Legion happened. A sword got stabbed into the planet. A new resource is discovered. The Horde and Alliance start shooting at each other because they’re worried what the other will do with said new resource. Things spiral, and before the end of the expansion we’re suddenly dealing with an Old God totally unrelated to whatever nonsense Sylvanas was on about.
That was the key difference. The Fifth War had no build up of tensions. I remember back in Wardads it being laughed about because the Horde’s entire justification for Ashran was “Yeah but what if?”
We had the Alliance being mad about Broken Shore (Despite the fact a single diplomatic envoy explaining Vol’jin had been mortally wounded and Sylvanas made the decision to pull back Horde forces that were being overwhelmed/overrun would have cleared up all of that) and Azerite being the sole justification for BfA.
I’ve no problem with a faction conflict so long as it feels earned. But by that same token, I also am an Alliance main. I dislike the faction war narrative because historically speaking, every time there’s a faction war the Alliance goes down a major faction settlement with no replacement.