Well, the whole size of the world excuse is so lame it’s hard to believe you think we’re that stupid. We pay for time the more time we waste flying, the more money you make. I’ve played many games that seemed big but allowed fast travel. Guild Wars is a good example.
That said I don’t mind what you did too much. You’ve done it before and when you took the first portals out of old Dalaran there was just as much of a uproar.
Some things that would help are faster taxi’s. Once you get a flight whistle let it work anywhere in the world. Put some neutral zeplins or boats or portals in from Booty Bay to Winterspring and Tanaris and Ratchet and add a steemwheel port of call in northern Eastern Kingdoms. So from any one of those steemwheel cities you can get to any of the others.
Some things that can help players are using your old hearthstones. Use Your Dalaran hearthstone to get to the port to Org or Stormwind in Dalaran. Your 2 Draenor hearthstones can get you to a port to Ashran and then to Org or Stormwind. It’s a couple of hops but if your in a hurry it works. Then your regular hearthstone should be ready again.