To be fair, gnomes and goblins should have been removed from the game by now, for everyone's benefit.
Pandaran themselves aren't that bad. Hozen, the rabbit pests, and the floating bubble-with-a-mask mobs you get here and there, however, have a strong tinge of "Ok, now I'm playing a walt disney game" more so than one that just gets occasionally goofy or has a lot of pop references. Almost all of Stormstout Brewery, for example, is a concise example of the lamest stuff this expansion has to offer.
And while I don't think the story they're telling right now is the best they've done.... the *way* they're telling it is quite effective, and probably the best balance between participation in the story unfolding firsthand (through solo / 3 man scenarios, rep-related quests, etc) and through simply reading lore (which is scattered all over the island.) There's still some continuity issues here and there, but overall story delivery is better than ever.