People do not want to admit it. But semi-afk WoW content has been an important cornerstone of the game since the Burning Crusade pre-patch, where people would afk in AVs for free epics.
Personally I think it plays an important role as a break from the constent stressed out gogogo content in modern WoW. In Vanilla you had flight paths, running through zones and waiting for boats / zeplins for forced afk relaxing content. Now? Very little downtime ever to relax.