The issue is not the unlock as a concept, it’s the process.
I’m sure if rep were grindable like in TBC, there wouldn’t have been complaints, you find yourself time, you grind your rep, you’re done and move to else.
The game should be appealing to everyone and suit everyone time schedule, but the more expansion are coming out, the more it feels tailored to people with hrs to play each day.
It would be because to get anything to exalted would require more time than it does now
Highly doubt. The current system is designed to have us playing every day, while the previous grindable system was much more flexible and allowed us to do what we want when we wanted.
@Tahen: While it does not apply to all allied races, the Highmountain tauren actually are grindable, which also makes them the easiest allied race to acquire.
The current system is gated, but the one in the past required much more time overall spent when it comes to the grind required to unlock things. Anyone who did in the vanilla frostsaber grind or in TBC Netherwing rep one and who unlocked the current allied races knows that.
Well if it wasn’t gated. It would be possible to get from neutral->exalted in 1 week if you were very ambitious(some might argue that it would be even faster).
While in TBC. Even if you played 24/7. No way you would get say…Netherwings rep up in 1 week. 
I started grinding rep (again) this the for the horde and i’m already sick of the game. Worst thing is that even if i want to invest time to unlock them as fast as possible i can’t, I have to wait for emissaries, WQ resets etc…
This is precisely how I feel. I’m tired of my new character before I even start playing it. And I will probably end up unsubbing for a month or three until I find the energy to continue. The bottom line for me is that this is a game, and games should be fun. We all understand Blizzard wants to make money, but exhausting your players with silly grinds is not the way to do it. It is however the surest way to make them fatigued.
You’re cherry picking.
The netherwing and the winterspring are kinda optional grind, like the kurenai. They’re giving you mounts or pets, nothing else.
At that point, i could argue that the skyguard is grindable in 5-6hrs, but the point is that is an optional extra faction, not one of the base ones of the expansion that gives you important things like gear or current profession recipes.
It’s so badly gated this system that when i exalted the bfa factions, my gear was much higher in ilvl than the extalted gear item the vendor has to sell, making it useless unless looking for a tmog.
I have to agree, there is no reason why we have to do dungeons and god knows an unlimited questline to unlock the allied races.
I mean, okay, so Blizzard can’t make a starting area for each race. The players understand that. But surely there is a better way to introduce players to the races and their backgrounds than rep grinding. The quest lines at least make a certain amount of sense. Although in the case of the Zandalari and Kul Tirans there are way too many of them.
Sorry but I’m not the one who did come to this thread saying how unlocking things on the old way was a better system and how would it be better for the allied races, you did.
And about the rep gear I agree, Blizzard should have put items there for the revered rep or have them higher in the il so that people would get some use of them when they did reached exalted.
The allied races are also optional, you don’t need to have them on day one, you can do the all the content in the game without playing as one.
I did but be honest, you picked two special case of all the ingame factions available, and even so, exalt bfa faction is a 3-4 week effort. I don’t recall a single grindable rep that took so long, not even the netherwing (who by the way, are also grindable by eggs). I did them and it took me 3 weeks of very little effort.
If you seriously want to say how unlocking the allied races takes as long as reaching exalted with the Netherwing I call that bullshi*, and grinding for the most reps in vanilla/TBC did take way longer. End of story.
The only rep that took longer were the ones with limited grinding options, like the hidraxian waterlords which gets rep only from bosses from revered upwards.
Exalting xpac factions of tbc/wrath/cata reps takes nothing, a few hrs of grind for a few days.
@Tahen: Hmmm, not true… BfA launched on the 14th, the first Dark Irons and Mag’'har appeared about 10 days later, if my recollection is not entirely in error. If necessary, I will try to find some of my old relevant posts. 
You are delusional hypocrite with a bad memory, I see that from your response. And why the heck did you now even have to get the Wotlk in the mix, when we were talking about the TBC.
Sure, but how many? The first 120 char was done in like 5 hrs, but it’s not a real representation of the playerbase.
For the vast majority of us, it takes weeks/months. I’ve played since launch and my first faction was exalted late in october.
I’m afraid your recollection is in error. I’ve started straight away and it’s taken me at least 2 weeks. And that’s with 3 zones of WQs, compared to 1 zone worth of WQs other reputations have.
30th of August, Mag’har unlocked.
Started 14th of August.
As someone who has unlocked four of them so far I think it’s time they removed this unnecessary locking of cosmetics. They never did it with Blood Elves, Draenei, Worgen, Goblins and Panderens. Even the hero classes Death Knights and Demon Hunters where available from the start of their respected expansions.
But add a few cosmetic races because that’s all they are and suddenly you have to grind for a while to unlock them. It’s pointless and unfair on new and returning players imo.
I, for myself, fail to see a problem.
You start at level 20 after a ‘grind’ to unlock them, despite 4 of them being current content and the others being closely linked to Legion Pathfinder which most people do anyway for quality of life in levelling. People, on average, spend anywhere between 2-3 hours of playtime levelling from 1-20. Yes, it’s an average.
After doing the content you could be doing in the game anyway, that’s how long most of the unlock questlines take.
Is there really a problem with being encouraged to experience a game if rather than just playing it? In knowing a background of a race before being able to take control?
Don’t get me wrong I play alongside working 40+ hours a week, wife, family etc etc. But the allied races grind, for me, isn’t a problem. I just do what I can, when I can, and don’t throw my toys out the pram complaining when I don’t progress as quickly and easily as I might like. There are more things in the game that you could be doing than crying about something you can’t access without a little effort.
@Kraglin: Doublechecked… Following posts from WCR forums:
Balgair, 24th: Dark Iron Dwarves incoming right now: https://blue.mmo-champion.com/topic/1099672-completed-dark-iron-dwarves-requirementsstill-cant-play/ - there was a bug where the quest didn’t pop for the first few to get the rep done but now hotfixed apparently. Mag’har will be another day or two, Horde are way down on rep thanks to a discrepancy in rep-giving quests (plus not having human racial doesn’t help).
Balgair, 25th: Looks like there are now 4 Dark Iron Dwarves in the database.
Bringoutyourdead, 25th: Both EU and US are showing Dark Iron
US has the first Mag’har…
I, 27th: @Bringoutyourdead: Probably several people got “KOed” by pushing final less than 2000 points to finish. I am right now seeing 12 DID on EU-Silvermoon and about half of them are level 20, so they are probably less than an hour old, three most likely less than 10 minutes old, because the count was 9 just minutes ago. 
I hope I manage to get all of them, so far 4 are on file and census is running (slowly, because there are lots of people about).
I, 27th: @All: And I just spotted my first Mag’har on the RP 5-way (Defias Brotherhood and connected)! Data uploaded, more to follow!
So my memory was NOT badly off.