Absolutely agree with you OP.
I’ve been to Mograine/Ashbringer/Nethergarde and all of them had the same kind of leveling experience just like you described. And these are all different servers too, High pop, Medium pop, Low pop. And both PvP and PvE servers too.
It’s a real shame and definitely a problem the majority will experience, given perhaps a few exceptions.
Don’t mean to highjack but I made a thread on here recently petitioning as it were for new non-transferable realms to be released, starting from phase 1. Would love it if you could leave a quick supportive reply there as it ties in with what you’re saying so well: Fresh Realms needed - #46 by Buu-nethergarde-keep
I personally love leveling from 1-60, making friends along the way, doing dungeons and group quests, getting early raid attunements, ranking in PvP and so on and that experience is dwindling every day and is not even experienced by newcomers! A shame! Most of us have unsubbed by now.