World of Warcraft was never about the graphics ...
People forget that when WoW went public with it's game play (late alpha ?) is was accused of having cartoonish graphics and game play. Public access was first to the beta and USA only (and as with most betas limited access which had to be applied for and being granted to known gaming reporters and experienced MMO players). I was fortunate to have a try through the account of the US based father of a Dark Age of Camelot clan mate and at that point it did seem like a weak game and my experience mirrored the early reports - the game was most likely to be another one of the high hype but complete failures that we were seeing at the time.
I was fortunate to get in to the UK/European beta by which time the game play was much improved. Graphically it was still poor compared to it's established rivals, but the game play made it.