I don’t remember if the flight path from Ratchet to Orgrimmar was ever like this in vanilla but it goes Ratchet -> Crossroads -> back to Ratchet -> Orgrimmar.
Yes, that’s correct. Some flight paths were not very efficient.
Flying from Theramore to Astranaar requires you to fly directly over Astranaar to Auberine, then back down to Astranaar.
Vanilla flightpaths were bad. It wasnt this super-efficient spiderweb grid we have now on retail.