I initially wasn’t expecting much for 9.2.5 to be honest. A few questlines like that Blood Elf heritage thing, but nothing really major.
That one leak referenced by Red Shirt Guy, which got everything right about the Dragonflight presentation, is really the main reason why there is some sort of expectation of at least one new race as a preorder incentive for the next expansion. I normally would just expect early access to the Dracthyr, which I’m sure is part of it, but given we have events planned for 9.2.5 and that Dragonflight preorders still aren’t opened, it does seem suspect at present.
I would say some new playable races would bring up preorders even more. A lot of people quit during Shadowlands, and it’d be a good way to entice people back if they put in races that would be popular in general. I’d say Darkfallen would be a good contender for that role, especially if they can be vampiric like with San’layn, but there could be other races that could get players back and preorder numbers up.
That said, I’m still tempering expectations. I mostly am talking about Darkfallen in general lately since I feel like it’s important to talk about them as a playable race and put out feedback and support for San’layn representation of some kind among them, whether they’re forthcoming or not. I still feel that it’s important to start discussions on it since Darkfallen have a classification update.
It’s very possible that we wouldn’t see any new playable races in 9.2.5, and even then it is up in the air what it could be. I’m just hoping it won’t be too long before we see 9.2.5 information and Dragonflight preorders open up so we can put this rumor to bed.
As for Dragonflight as a whole, I suppose anything is possible for allied races since we’re not in some cosmic area. Any other playable races that would come during that expansion likely would be near the end, leading into the next expansion like with Legion going into BfA. It’s something we’ll have to see as the next expansion begins and progresses.
And regardless of what happens or doesn’t happen, I’m still supporting playable Horde San’layn as best as I can. I have some more general thoughts on Darkfallen as a playable race I’ll type out when I can get my thoughts together to put it in a coherent post.