The Quests are like Episodes of a TV Show! That is good news!
The Zones are the Set Pieces of each TV Show which one can tour at one’s own leisure.
The TV Shows are on a script and thus one can’t fully immerse oneself despite being the Main Protagonist of every single TV Show with the Movies each having a distinct Protagonist:
WotLK has Tirion as Protagonist, Cataclysm has Thrall as Protagonist, MoP has Varian as Protagonist, WoD has Khadgar as Protagonist, Legion has Velen as Protagonist, BfA has Saurfang as Protagonist, Shadowlands has Anduin as Protagonist, Dragonflight has Alexstrasza as Protagonist and War Within has Alleria as Protagonist.
Each Movie also has a Prime Antagonist: WotLK has Arthas, Cataclysm has Deathwing, MoP has Garrosh, WoD has Gul’dan, Legion has Sargeras, BfA has Sylvanas, Shadowlands has the Jailer, Dragonflight has Fyrakk and War Within has Xal’atath.
The Movies also have secondary Antagonists: WotLK has Yogg-Saron, Cataclysm has Ragnaros, MoP has Lei Shen, WoD has Garrosh, Legion has Gul’dan, BfA has N’Zoth, Shadowlands has Mal’Ganis, Dragonflight has Raszageth and who knows who is the secondary Antagonist of War Within!
The Movies also have Antagonists who join our side against the others from MoP and onward: MoP has Vol’jin, WoD has Grom. Legion has Illidan, BfA has Azshara, Shadowlands has Sylvanas and Dragonflight has Vyranoth.
War Within has yet to reveal if it is going to have an Antagonist join our side.
Alas the TV Channel is only revisiting old TV Shows(Zones) rarely.