This is going to be long so bare with me, TLDR for the lazy at the end.
I’ve been playing since beta, and in that time I’ve traveled all the continents both through portals and on foot/mount from end to end, I love exploring, love finding the little places were a dev placed something unique which gets bypassed by the majority of players who are there just to quest and level, so I have no problem with long on foot travels.
That said, when returning with that character which is now much higher level, or a new alt who is burning through old content with heirlooms, I don’t want to be inconvenienced with travel times, meeting up with friends, or having to portal hop from A to C to get to B, which usually means hearthstone -> loading screen -> portal -> loading screen -> portal -> loading screen -> actual destination.
Back in 2000, before WoW, I played EverQuest, back then in EQ there weren’t any free NPC portals, you had to pay a player Wizard or a Druid to portal you to location near where you wanted to be, and if you couldn’t afford it, you had to run, which is what most low levels did.
When my guild back then organized a dungeon event I had to run from the eastern most city to the far northwest of the main continent so I could join them, it was an epic journey, through many zones which were much higher level then I was at the time, and till this day it still stands to me as one of the coolest things I ever did in an MMO, especially because of EQ’s death-bind mechanic.
The 2002 Planes of Power expansion added portal stones between the major cities through a hub called the Plane of Knowledge, and yes it did make the world feel smaller, and future players wouldn’t ever have such an epic journey like I had.
On the other hand it made it much easier for people to meet up and have fun together, to level, quest and run dungeons together, to not be separated by huge zones that were far above your level, or to be pigeonholed into playing certain races make it easier to play together, and that is what you want in an MMO in my opinion, to let people play what they want with their friends with the least amount inconvenience as possible.
To me the amount of portal destinations in WoW is very low, and hubs are concentrated in Org, SW, and what ever the current expansion’s capital or capitals are, there aren’t even any portals from the other racial cities to the hubs, let alone to each other.
As my EQ example showed I do get your philosophy of wanting to make the world feel big and epic, but just as that was Vanilla EQ, your philosophy applies to Vanilla WoW, we’re at level 120 now, most of the active gameplay is focused on the new content, and on the new continents, removing portal hubs from old content actually inconveniences players more then it helps them, your argument to “encourage transportation flow through newer places where players are more likely to interact with other players” falls flat, because people are just gonna portal hop, they want to get to their destination, not interact with others.
If I am in Dalaran in Northrend and I need to go to Ironforge for some reason, and my bind in Boralus is on cooldown, my only option is to go to Stormwind, because that’s the only portal left, and then take the tram to Ironforge, if my bind isn’t down, I just hearth to Boralus and take the portal to Ironforge, not interact with other players.
It does not make the world feel larger, just more inconvenient because you have more loading screens and travel time.
And that is what your focus should be on at this point in WoW’s life, 14 years after launch, player convenience, not whether or not the old continents still feel grand enough when traveled, that not where the focus of the players is.
My suggestion would be to keep the portals in old expansion capitals/hubs intact, and where they were already removed, restore them, because it just more convenient to the player.
Even more I would suggest that you add portal hubs, like you are currently adding to SW and Org, to all the racial capitals so players can meet up faster at low levels, and travel easier at all levels.
It would also make more sense in the game world, why would only Org have a portal room with portals everywhere and not Silvermoon, which arguably has a larger population of mages.
Focusing the travel on the two main capitals, and the current expansion’s capital is dumb, not only does it help make the other cities feel even more dead, it doesn’t does it make the world feel larger either.
TLDR:
Removing portals is dumb, it just inconveniences players to suffer more loading screens and travel time, not bring them together because they’re traveling through a single hub, nor does it make the world feel bigger as the players and content are focused on the latest expansion and it’s continent.
Keep all the old expansion hub portals intact, and restore the ones removed already, and add hubs like ones currently being added to Org and SW to all the racial capitals for convenience sake.
Portals like the one to the Caverns of Time for instance should be added to the portal room, not removed.
It’s a 14 year old game with a hugely expanded world, make it more convenient to travel, not more inconvenient.