i think if things weren’t as centralized as they are now, knowing anything about the world would require a ton of outside reading because there is no way to fit that many stories into an MMO
if we had orcs doing orc things while tauren and whoever did this, i think someone joining the next expansion would be way over their head in trying to understand what is going on, unless those individual stories aren’t fleshed out at all and then, what’s the point.
in a perfect world, i think any story teller would want to tell as many good stories as possible but time is money. it would be a giant undertaking for time alone, not to mention just the amount of writing that would need to be done; someone would have to come up with it and make it interesting if we want it to be done correct.
I have no doubt it’s possible to have stories about each faction doing their own thing and furthering agendas that may work alongside or against allies and enemies. i just have no confidence that those stories would be good stories in an MMO of this age/scale