While I actually agree that the Trolls could have been the Hordes “elves” so to speak, at this point dwelling on it is less than pointless.
The Blood Elves are part of the Horde. End of story.
With that said, WoW in general has just to many dang Elves dag nabbit. That ain’t a slight against the Blood Elves, just a general all encompassing elf fatigue. I mean come on Blizz, let us have more racial diversity. Where my Gilblins and Vulpera at?!
While I am, and always will be a troll lover, I think the blood elves have some really cool lore and their joining the horde made sense to me as they were basically the same situation as the forsaken. I do wish Kael’thas had ended up as leader instead of raid boss but blizz was on a warcraft character killing spree in TBC.
Honestly I feel they did have a lot of “savagery” in their own more elegant and refined way. Having to cope with being desperate for magic but also holding onto their culture/standards/morals was cool narrative to me. The scene of the belf sucking the mana from the mana wyrm was a short but good example of the ferocity that existed within the race.
I’m actually kinda sad that their addiction or need or whatever was cured so quickly and completely as since then they’ve had little to no plot as a race. Overall they’ve seemed more and more watered down to just be human culture: Red Version.
Personally I would’ve liked to see them restore the sunwell but it only worked partially. They would have to continually look for new sources and beings to break down and use as magical fuel for the sunwell.