@ Jab

I agree that Outland questing was a bit linear and dull. I don't see how you can say the only interesting thing about Wrath questing is phasing. The write talks about the back and forth globetrotting in classic. This was put in not to increase your enjoyment of the game, but somply to delay your progress. I immensely enjoyed quests like the one to get Verigan's Fist for Paladins, but quest that send you from Stormwind to Thousand Needles and back simply for a few silver and a normal amount of experience are not only frustrating but very poor game design.

This is the same philosophy behind limiting access to mounts and making people wait for boats at specific ports. (Remember 1000g epic mounts?) The longer it takes to get to 60, the less chance someone will get bored waiting for the next content patch and quit. Now that 60 isn't the cap, mounts are cheaper and can be bought sooner, heirlooms, RaF, xp requirement reductions, quest xp values doubling.

As WoW has grown into a much larger enterprise with much greater resources, there's no longer a need to hold people back as long as possible. Leveling isn't the main experience in Northrend, endgame is. For Cataclysm the pendulum will swing the other way a bit and leveling will get more emphasis, hence the 5 level increase as opposed to 10. All indications point to 5 big levels as opposed to 10 smaller ones.