The thing is, I *don't* think the ongoing faction conflict is necessarily bad or wrong. Humans (and in this case I also mean all sentient humanoids in WoW) are fucking stupid, petty, and tribal. We're facing apocalyptic climate change and most everyone in power is still just looking out for number 1. Hell, Game of Thrones (show or books) is all about how humans are too petty to come together even in the face of apocalyptic, existential disaster.
But Blizzard always hinge it on one character doing some completely out of character, cartoonishly evil dumb shit. And, granted, even that isn't that far removed from the current POTUS. But stories can be better than reality! Write this stuff in a way that isn't hilariously one-sided. It's not that hard to imagine a scenario where both the Horde and the Alliance have plenty of good and bad eggs. Maybe that's too subtle for a game like WoW. But the point is, I think there's a way to pull off the kind of story dynamics they want to establish, but they're just not doing a good or interesting job of it.
I agree with you. I think a lot of the tension comes from both sides being too far one direction. Right now the Alliance is holy and perfect and just without many flaws and my friends who play Alliance are like "it's boring"
And the Horde is always described as "savage" but their definition of that is "basically evil" and "unable to control bloodlust" so they make someone go crazy with power. I don't want to feel like I'm constantly playing the bad guy as a horde player but I also don't want everyone (either side) to be as flat as cardboard. There's got to be a balance.