Or, we could further down this road, and recognize all the Elves as a Troll subspecies!
(But seriously, I’ve always thought of this ‘species branch’ as the Troll-Elf family, ever since it was revealed in, like, WotLK that the Elves evolved from Trolls.)
Eh, while not a strictly biological evolution or change the differences between Troll and Elf are probably enough that they’d be different species, with Elves breaking off after their change from Dark Troll to Night Elf.
(Though I am not a genealogist by any means. Though I was originally going to be…)
the reason they are technically still the same race is because several of them were born before the war of the ancients… they were born as Highborne Night Elves, millennia of exposure to the night well and subsiding on raw arcane energy mutated them. They didn’t stop being Highborne, they just became something more.
Shhh. Let me have fun, okay?
(I teach Biology to high school students. So yeah, I know enough basic stuff to know that it’s not accurate. But like I said, let me have fun here. )
Mutated and became a new race…
So they’re not what they were before, breed true (as far as we can tell) and Blizzard states they’re not the same race.
They are still Elves. Species. Elf.
Look, would it be that way in real life? Unlikely, but its a world with magic. Just accept that Blizzard says they’re a wholly new race and move on.
You can still use your same argument regardless of if they are or are not. The Nightborne would have an extremely large amount of their culture derived from the Highborne that they once were.
While I kinda suspect given their circumstances much of it has veered a different way than other groups of Highborne culture would have they’re still gonna have one of the closer cultures.
Blood Elves too technically…
And the Shen’dralar.
That said all of those groups had vastly different things happen up to now and I’d say none of them are the same Highborne culture they all stem from.
Or you can just ignore all I’ve said. Whats it matter in the end when I’m not a dev?
Pah! But I have to be exact!
Yeah, honestly I don’t see why we all need to get hopped on it anyways… (And I started part of this argument rolf.)
Have fun with your Troll clades. >.>
Y’know, I’m actually not such a big fan of the new clade system. Some of the logic there just seems a tad bit… wonky.
But I keep my mouth shut, and I just teach the system to my students – and I make sure that they learn both the strengths and weaknesses of the system! 
I know what you mean a bit. I don’t mind it but I think some of it is arbitrary? Not sure thats the right word for it.
Then again the old systems fairly arbitrary in places too… then you add in genetics and things get really wonky.
Science of any kind and math were my worst subjects 
sorry to the teachers I’m sure I stressed out
I’m happy to finally have this kind of response. When core races got their first pass most of the races didn’t receive options people really asked for. I want to believe this time will be different!
That is not a reason to define something as the same race. Think of evolution as an example, how things evolve, with changes they go through. Does that mean everything still be the same race?
There isn’t any lore to state the Nightborne as the same race to the Highborne or Night Elves, considering Highborne is just a fancy name for Night Elves who were “upper class”. Otherwise, if you’re using this logic, it means the Highborne, Blood Elves, High Elves, Void Elves, Naga and Night Elves are all the same race, which really doesn’t make sense.
They’re not the same race.
They’re the same people, the same social class/echelon they were before, but they evolved and are no longer Night Elves. Their offspring are Nightborne, not regular Night Elves, so no, they’re not the same biological race as Night Elves.
The fact they were Night Elves before is completely irrelevant to what they are now in terms of genes.
I thought the opening cutscene explained it well enough. They have evolved in another species within 10.000 years of isolation which has its roots in being Night Elves.
Chances are that they have been working on these additional customizations and they were going to be a 10.0 feature. With the negative press they are probably releasing what they have completed to get a win, but they haven’t completed the work on the other allied races.
/complete guess
Likely - but then again, these are minimal effort changes. FF14 knocks out so much better designs and content that I really wonder what happens with all the money they earn. With all the income they could have reworked the Eastern Kingdom and Kalimdor twice already.
I really want Taunka, Forest and Ice Trolls and even Broken as options.
Draenei need lila/ violett eyes like Velen and on some official art.
Humans could need a slim version.
Gnomes and Tauren need more faces etc.
Also: Scars and blind eyes for everyone.
I hope the developers have some more regal, Highborne options for the Nightborne in the future.
Also, please modify the female Nightborne’s eyelashes to better accompany their new eye option which only has eyelashes in the corner. 
If the eyelashes were extended to just a little more into the inner corner, they’d look perfect.
Image of current eyelashes:
Checking in with some Pandaren suggestions:
More than one face to choose from.
Customizable ears and muzzles.
Red Panda options for males.
Tatoo/fur markings to denote faction allegiance and Celestial allegiance.
Tail jewelry options.
Fix the visible seam where my head connects with my neck.
Fix my shoulder armor so it isn’t floating a foot off of my body.
Separate hair color from fur color.
Silver Fox fur color for Vulpera!
Albino fur for all beast races.
Much of that would be swell to see.
Do Vulpera have a full black?
No, they don’t.
They don’t have a full white, either.
Their darkest skin comes with a white belly and muzzle, and their lightest skin comes with gray-and-black markings.
I keep going back and forth between the colors on my Vulpera. Still haven’t nailed her looks down yet. 