This...
I just finshed leveling my druid a month ago, I went from 1 - 70 in about a week and then the Northrend grind just made me stop. I went back to it about once a week for 2 hours at a time but the leveling was extremely slow paced. I don't think it really takes THAT much longer than 60 - 70 at this point, however the fact that Wrath is the freshest xpac in our minds prior to Cata going back to Northrend just feels like a chore. I recently decided to roll a horde side pally on my server where my 7 other toons are alliance but I just stopped paying it attention at 69, knowing how much I dread going to Northrend.

I do see the side of the argument for people against this and, in fact, do not think that this change will have much of an impact for people like me who cannot stand most northrend zones, but ill be going back to that horde pally when 4.3 drops. What makes me sad is that the backend of Northrend will now be shortened. It is the 70 - 74 leveling that I can't stand, once I hit 75 I usually have a blast running through ZD, completing all the quests, even after they go green and then running to Sholazar for a couple of quests til I'm ready to tackle ice crown, which has some of the most fun quests. Especially now that you can solo the group quests at level with the imbalance of class scaling as you close in on the level cap.

Ill probably still full clear ZD and Ice Crown, even if I do get to 80 before I'm done. I have gone back to Storm Peaks on almost all my toons to clear the quests there, being overpowered doesn't take away from the story of the quests at all for me. Especially since the actual quests themselves are usually quite grindy and the story only really comes into play at the start and on turn-in.