Actually EQ2 is light years beyond wow in many ways. I don't mean at launch. But after their echoes of faydwer expansion it was a very solid game that changed a great deal from launch.
It is the most feature rich MMO out there right now. Just so many gameplay options. So much that I wish WoW would copy. So many things you don't see any other MMO's. And in some cases it carries over the best from them.
If EQ2 launched in a similar state as it is now I would bet you that the WoW/EQ2 populations would be about a 50/50 split.

I don't currently play EQ2 but I do follow it's progress. The only MMO i'm currently playing is WoW.

I'd too describe EQ2 now as more polished a game then WoW, I've been playing both now for about a year having started on WoW about 3 years ago. EQ2 has changed a lot since launch, maybe a problem with the original was it was a bit too complicated in some areas and the chiefly the graphics were beyond the capabilities of most graphics cards in any good detail mode.

Now though the graphics look awesome, the latest update has upgrade the engine even further, check out the various races, playing a Froglock here (hated as much as Gnomes in WoW it appears ;) ) and the detail really needs to be seen to be believed. Its still a bit more complicated, but you can get by without mastering it, and gradually learn the game as you progress. 16 classes, and I think ~14 races, its refreshing to know your friends in a crowd just from the way they look too with the character customisation.

Game play wise it too has been garnering more of my time recently and I even missed a uldar raid last night to play it which is saying something, totally bored of the non raid action now in WoW especially the endless journeys to one location just to do a 15 minute daily, and to be truthful I found that was true of 90% of Wotlk levelling being just too easy with very few quests really testing me, a lot of the time it felt like fetch and retrieve :P
There was not even an option to step up a gear and blast through it faster but at a higher difficulty level - just limited by the speed of my epic ground mount until level 77 :P

In comparison I stepped into the desert of flames area near Maj'dul and got obliterated taking on what I thought would be reasonable opponents, its certainly gives the option of stepping up a gear questing in challenging areas, for now I'm heading back to the swamps of Feerrot for a couple more levels :)

I just left WoW for EQ2 because its FAR more interesting and isn't ignoring casual players that don't want to raid or do arena. They should just change the name of WoW to Warcraft raiding arena..that's all they seem to care about developing and improving.