WoD has the least amount of zones I enjoy playing. When I level characters now I zip through that xpac as quickly as I can, kind of like Outland or Northrend.
BFA is immensely beyond WoD for me personally, but I’m easy to please, and also don’t look down on someone for disagreeing with me. It’s all subjective. 
Edited for my fat fingered typos. Meh.
There was no Ap grind in WoD
There were also tier sets .
For the so called dictators , there was ML
Edit: Oh lets not forget, there were pvp servers 
WoD would have been the best expac of them all if they hadn’t cut over half the content and features and expected garrisons to fill that void.
Tbh while WoD had a content drought for a time being, at least I had a will to log in to WoD and actually do any of the things you listed. And, to be honest I didn’t mind WoD despite it’s terrible flaws. Not to mention PvP wasn’t nearly as annoying as it is currently IMO.
BfA has often killed my will to log in so much so that I honestly mostly have been logging in only to raid. Only recently have I actually tried to stomach BfA. There are multiple flaws with BfA and I also feel multiple classes that just make it not very fun.
Not really a knock-off since it’s still WoW. I prefer to think of it as a refined version of MoP’s system. For instance, the power curve was less steep in WoD, which encouraged new players to jump into pvp and feel like they could contribute. In MoP, a new player entering a bg might as well be fighting a bunch of raid bosses.
Other than that, I don’t recall any drastic differences between the two, unless you’re referring to class design/balance.
I’m the type of player that can accept less-than-stellar game design if I’m given a story I can enjoy and immerse myself in.
What WOD lacked in content (most of its development was cut 'cuz Blizzard just gave up), there was at least a decent enough story for me to invest in.
PVP was also decent. Not great, but I could at least farm my Honor and Conquest and then go to Warspear and get my gear from the Vendor.
BFA has a lot more content than WOD… but it sucks comparatively. They’ve doubled, heck tripled, down on the RNG with WF/TF, Gem sockets are now procs, and Tertiary stats… piled on top of lackluster Azerite traits… The dungeons I’ve done were all kind of… meh… and the story…
The over arching War Campaign narrative is just straight up garbage. None of it flows in any logical sense. There are points in the story where it was goin’ one direction, then Blizzard changed their minds halfway through and did a 180.
Even with its timey-wimey nonsense, WOD’s story was at least coherent and flowed together… at least the parts that were implemented.
This - over and over and over again. Back in Classic we ran the same content repeatedly because for many, it was easier to enjoy our characters. In Warlords, my entire stable of alts was at max level because the gameplay of the CHARACTERS was fun and it was easy to experiment with various playstyles because changing talents/spec on the fly was not problematic at all. There were tuning issues, but that’s not necessarily the same as class/spec mechanics.
Addressing some other differences - being a part of Y’rel’s story/progression, felt more intimate and more connected to my character experience than what I’ve experienced in BfA. And that small cut scene in Grimrail Depot where it renders your characters instead of NPCs was a wonderful touch that hasn’t been replicated. In Legion, the Order halls and artifact weapon connected strongly to YOUR choices as a character/player. Val’Sharah in particular, was an amazing experience if you played a Druid, and coupled with Suramar, was really cool for Night Elf players. Even for other classes and races, Suramar gave you a very close, intimate look at how the Nightborne civilians were suffering and invested you in their welfare. BfA, in contrast, has you primarily serving as someone’s generic lackey, not their mentor or friend.
Gameplay > Content
You can give me all the content in the world. But if I think that and the Class Design is in a bad place then it’s all for nothing. At least in WoD I enjoyed playing Hunter.
WoD had better class design,better dungeons and raids. PvP was pretty good as well. It just needed more content. BfA has plenty of content. Some good must most is just kind of meh.
It’s easy for people to say “WOD was better,” because they don’t have to log in and actually play WOD.
As someone who’s played during WoD and also has many guildies who played WoD, and I can honestly say I’d much prefer going back to WoD over BfA. WoD, as I said, hasn’t made me question why I still play this game. And I still play this game solely for my friends, and hardly for the content more often than not. I took a half a month break after we cleared BDA and waited for EP to come out.
WoD also had PvP vendors, a choice for PvPers to actually make and actually progress through, through their own means and through their own skills. BfA does not. We have a set amount of options for something that we might not even need that week, making it utterly useless. Not to mention the weekly chest that may or may not give an upgrade, more often than not it doesn’t.
Bingo.
(Most) classes in MoP were far more enjoyable than in WoD and it led to the pvp being amazing.
Not that WoD pvp was bad–because it wasn’t–but rather because I just overall liked the pvp better in MoP. That being said, I did pvp more during WoD but that was just due to the general lack of compelling pve content.
And Hpal had kick in WoD 
what a time…to be alive 
… frickin bfa…
WoD had no content but what was there was thoughtfully made and the class design was light years better.
When someone says WoD was better than BFA, it is a quality vs. quantity observation most times.
How? It was mostly bad parts?
-After Talaador, the Iron Horde thread of the story just DROPS a big honking detour into Arakkoa land (delightful non-sequitur, one of my favorite zones).
-Not to mention we MISS an entire huge chunk of the thread explaining why Blackhand just kills Orgrimm
-Nagrand is the seat for YET ANOTHER Thrall kill-steal
-And Garrosh is dealt with in an impossible to fail scenario and then a cool but problematic cinematic
-‘DRAENOR IS FREE!!!’
-‘If you ever need us, we’ll be here.’
-Vol’jin spends 90% of his warchiefdom doing …?
WoD’s story had two main purposes, and it shows:
i feel like 8.3 is a step in the right direction
but i CANT forgive up till now just cause you know?
been a YEAR of basically a hot garbage xpack, with greedy practices being seen on top with the company
blizz lost alot of ground this year, sux b*lls 
was WoD better ? imo, yes sadly
To each their own, I hate MoP the most. I hate the zone, the Monk class, and Pandaren. It just does not fit with the res of the games theme to me. I am happy for those who love it, but I for one hate MoP most.
I think WoD was a soild expac content wise but the reward structure killed it.
It had good dungeons and raids but people refused to do anything after it was discovered you could afk to power and riches in your garrison.
The lesson of WoD was lost. One you give out free gear it invalidates everything below it.
Washing away those slightly not so great parts of the storyline in WoD, I did actually really enjoy the going back in time to see the old clans, the lore of the Arakkoa before they fell, and even the draenei… Even if it was an AU due to smart garrosh being a bum. Anywho, yeah… I enjoyed those parts very much and I remember first playing WoD’s questline during launch and it was so great to me…now if I’m leveling I want to internally cry. I do feel they botched the story toward the end thanks to how garrosh as a whole was handled.
It’s just a personal preference. I don’t want to look past the entire Sylvanas mess in BfA and the burning of Teldrassil. I personally don’t think the story should have ever ended up where it has. That’s really it. Something simple and so poisonous it ruined the game for me. It was very jarring coming off of Legion. This is the only expansion where I’ve found it easy to not play and I only have it because a friend bought it as a gift.
Things I enjoyed in WoD
-I loved the garrisons.
-I loved all the followers
-I was able to level a bunch of characters to max level. Something I’ve never done. in the past. That could be due to lack of content, but point still remains I was enjoying myself.
-Dagg the ogre rogue
There are a lot of other reasons I enjoyed WoD. I could be using rose tinted glasses, but 
.
I accept that I’m probably putting too much emphasis on the mess with Sylvanas but it is what it is.
tbh I was not expecting a question to my response. So used to that sorta thing being ignored. Awesome mog, btw!