Not ashamed of playing WoW. I still play retail, classic and occasionally Season of Discovery. Just sad that I fell for the Plunderstorm and will probably be falling for the upcoming "special" Mists of Pandaria timewalking event.
You are right though. It's not the same, way too much focus on the perfect spec setup and having the best gear before running content to get the best gear (I know how do you get the gear when you can't get a group to get the gear without the gear). But I nabbed my old guild, I invite most people who want to join and everyone in my guild seems happy enough pottering along at their own pace.