There's plenty of games out there with tons of RP elements that can give you immersion, customization, and identity.
And anything that interferes with that will be met with hostility and derision while anything that exists without interfacing with it will be cast aside and largely ignored. That is and always will be tight, mechanical gameplay. It's not WoW's core audience, and it's not WoW's core identity. It was widely rejected, so much in fact it's now held up as the cautioning example to future generations not to try this again. Remember Covenants? They tried making the RP a more integral part of things, by getting people to commit in some meaningful way. Those are and always will be afterthoughts, because if they were to ever have any kind of substance, they'd have to have mechanical impact. Mechanics are what matters most, not immersion or flavor. I think it's time to accept that WoW just isn't that kind of game, and never really was.
