The thing is, HDDs were always this slow. SSD users are just so used to the difference that going back feels like the game is running poorly.
And while increased graphics quality can increase load times, doesn’t mean it is the problem.
Hardware gets better, Software gets better alongside it.
Reducing one aspect without adjusting the other results in problems.
Minimum requirements suggest an SSD and while the it says you can run on a HDD the experience will be diminished;
https://eu.battle.net/support/en/article/76459
Fastest hard drive on the market max burst read speed, about 550 mb/s. Typical hdd throughput, about 120 mb/s sustained. Potentially throttled by the USB port if not C type.
Modern SSD throughput (not industry leading or special); 7,000 mb/s, sustained.
All things are 15-30x slower when moved to a spinning drive; the question is whether the particular game/application is reading a small amount of data and doing a lot of processing (less noticeable) or reading a ton of data and doing little processing (very noticeable).
External SSDs exist and as long as you give them a usb-c port to connect to, can reach significantly better speeds than any hdd - although less than an internal ssd.
The answer is right there in the first line of your post. WoW isn’t meant to be run on a HDD. I switched to SSD 3 years ago because the loading screens were so painful. I can’t imagine what they must be like now.
Why can’t I watch 4k discs on my Betamax?
I remember the uproar when the min requirements came out and it said SSD.
Yeah me too, this is why I found the info for the OP. 
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