Then you’ve obviously been living under a rock because I’ve seen a bit of support for Dragonmaw as an allied race instead of orc customization ever since BfA opened the way for more quick and dirty race additions. Meanwhile, gilgoblins had a fair amount of people wanting them as the goblin allied race over vulpera. They and forest trolls have whole allied race megathreads that still get visited regularly, with the forest troll thread being a little over four years old:
About the only one that died off in popularity was blood trolls, but the interest in them was there, even if it was brief.
Yes, they were. BfA didn’t invent the concept of people discussing what races they want in the game. Earthen have been in the game for over a decade, albeit looking very differently in TWW from their introduction in Wrath, so in that time, they could’ve easily rivaled Dark Irons in support as either a potential new race or potential dwarf customization. It’s just that the events of BfA caused the discussion of potential Alliance allied races to focus predominantly on high elves and sethrak with other races being choked out.