I am not new to the game nor am I a returning player.
I gave a chance to the new returning experience, and oh boy, I was camped by a ?? BM hunter before I could interact with Jaina with my first quest or set my talents (which the flashy marker highlighted). Never have I clicked faster to the teleport to Valdrakken option. What’s the point of reworked Arathi if you are killed on sight and cannot experience the new player experience?
Ed.: my point is: it would be nice to have war mode toggled off as the default for Arathi players.
It’s unusual that you can be attacked unless you opt into warmode on. You can turn warmode off in any rested area and it can only be turned on in certain capitals. It would be visible on your talents page.
The only other way you can accidentally get pvp enabled in Warmode off is if you stray into the opposite faction’s bases. It’s quite easy to do and you get a 5m timer before it deactivates, or you can take any flightpath to remove it.