Can we stop comparing the two at this point?

[Shurrikhan]

Being "cheated" of my choice is worse to me than not having to make a choice.

See, I'm not sure how seeing a point of division in game and not having a choice as to how your character will deal with it, or seeing a seemingly open-solution problem and not being allowed to pick how you address it, is any less a matter of "being cheated" of that choice than that the two choices eventually meet again.

Again, I'm not saying WoW always did this right. I certainly wouldn't lock rewards behind a fork in the road here, even if I personally think it's a good way to deepen investment as displayable to a community, since I know it will trigger completionists. But either case is going to "cheat" you -- and I prefer it do so in that plotlines eventually resolve and factions eventually reconcile than in that player agency is taken from me or that massive areas of opportunity must be removed from any and all storytelling just because they'd otherwise reveal how much player agency is restricted.