I’d say yes. It feels much more like I’m a character in the world having to run where I’m going.
I came to WOW from Guild Wars (original), and the difference there is you go into instanced worlds and teleport between cities. It felt much more gamified and less immersive as a world. WOW, by comparison, was huge open world, all connected, maps showing many zones on a continent to travel through.
As for tracking the time, I don’t add it up, but one thing I do as kind of a timer is buff myself on characters that can, and see how much time is left as I arrive. Those people who buff everyone at FPs or zeps are great for timers on those too.