Yeh, but I think the biggest contributor to make it feel like the way it did; was the community; you knew the players after awhile, like you'd see them in Ironforge, or outside dueling or perhaps in a BG. Some you talked to, others you did not. Once in awhile, you'd see them, and you'd perhaps see they had a new weapon or shoulders, or perhaps a ring. You also knew who was good and who was not; you had your own prefered players, you'd take with you into a bg aswell.
It was a new game, and people mostly had some sort of goal; like get rank 14, or atleast try to see how far they'd get; or down every boss in game; or server first, or whatever, it helped motivate ppl, and somehow made it feel like everybody wanted something out of the game; because it was exciting, as we did not know 100% where it was going.
That perhaps, might be impossible to ever get back, even if technically this server will be 100% blizzlike; the attitude, view and the way people will see the game now, will be different than before; the spirit of the game will not be quite the same; and you will never ever get all those people you used to like playing with to all come online like back in the day; but perhaps the old wow was that good, that even if this will only feel like 50% of that, it might still be worth playing; who knows