According to a lawyer no, but the way they worded it to the RP realms is kinda misleadning… IMO it’s very much intentional.
There was a massive outcry from the RP realms regarding sharding and how it’s community breaking…
I agree.
Blizzard responds with…
They are fairly specific about the use of sharding on RP realms, and it would lead the typical player to assume this means as long as they stay out of holiday zones or Northrend / Modern WoW zones such as whatever the new content is; then they are going to be shard free.
IMO not a bad compromise right?
Well turns out, when populations in an area are higher than blizzard would preference sharding takes place regardless, and even in some areas where for no apparent reason.
Given their inability to either control their system properly or lack of honesty or change in policy I would rather not venture into that can of worms.