No story, no real role-playing, no puzzles, no 'uniquness', just kill anything that moves.
Did we play the same game? Did you play on one of the servers specifically dedicated to role-playing? Did you delve into any of the instances, where problem-solving and puzzling are required to make it out alive?
Granted, I haven't played all that many MMO games, but I was orignally - and still am - astounded by a number of WOW's really obvious innovations, like weapons that don't disappear when you put them away, and mounts you can ride. Maybe that stuff is in the other games, but coming from solo RPG play (like NWN), that stuff blew my mind. It's so obvious and it improves immersion a hundred-fold.
I hear you about the grind but it's the funnest grind I've ever played. And honestly, as perverse as it sounds, the real game doesn't even begin until you hit 60. It's like a 60-level tutorial on how to play your class, to get you ready for battlefields and the high-end instances.
Which is why, my current online poison is Guild Wars It's free, you don't have to party with anybody, it has a decent amount of strategy, and an ok plot.
Eh, I tried it in the beta; had some fun with a Necro/Elementalist, and it is indeed fun to run around as a goth, but I don't like the way they set up their servers. I play WOW with a bunch of my buddies and, as long as we're all on the same server, we don't have to worry about zoning into the right shard or whatever; we're in the same world, always.