Look at the zone totals below. So far, Shadowlands has the fewest of any expansion. The next fewest is WoD, and we know where that one stands among the playerbase. The next fewest is BfA. I am not counting Oribos as a stand-alone zone, and neither am I counting Dalaran, Shattrath, etc. Also, not counting dungeons.
The others had that many by the end of them, not at the beginning.
WoD and BfA had six zones at the start. Legion only had five too. Cataclysm also had five. SL is pretty on par with recent expansions. It’s going to get more zones in the future.
Legion had Highmountain, Val’sharah, Azsuna, and Stormheim for leveling. Shadowlands has Ardenweald, Bastion, Revendreth and Maldraxxas for leveling. Suramar opened up for questing later (we have the Maw for end game). More zones will come in later patches, quit complaining over a non-issue.
So you might’ve fat fingered some numbers there.
Additionally, we’re at the start of the expansion where there’s hardly any zones.
Legion launched with only the Broken Isles originally. Azsuna, Val’Sharah, Highmountain, Stormheim, Suramar. That’s 5. The Broken Shore and Argus came later.
BfA launched with 6. Three Alliance and three Horde
Gilneas
Kelp’thar
Shimmering Expanse
Abyssal Depths
Twilight Highlands
Tol Barad Peninsula
Tol Barad
Mount Hyjal
Uldum
Kezan
Lost Isles
Maeltrom
Deepholm
Molten Front
Rather than fight about the correct zone numbers I’m just going to say this. Quality over quantity. The amount of zones doesn’t matter, it’s what is done with them. While I think the zones are a little small and compact, I would not say that “only five zones” makes it bad by any means.