No I don't prefer painted on faces and the like. What I do prefer however, is the notion that my characters could look and feel the same as they always did, just with graphical improvements. Blizzard could have approached this in a number of other ways that reflected both efficiency and quality. Instead they waste time going from the ground up, crafting faces and animations that are unrecognisable. To this day there are still incorrect eye colours on various faces.
I'm all for new and improved models, but ultimately what Blizzard produced is a hastily made disappointment (In line with the rest of WoD really). Even if it was over the course of many months, I believe it would be best if they touched up the models to a quality standard. I'll leave these videos as more evidence of poor animations:
Night Elf Male -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSGjkSEWueg This was AFTER they changed it from it's initial 6.0 version. Still undeniably different.
Blood Elf Male -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-K_5Ef-SjA Around 22s in you can see he runs like a hunch-back. My god, even the breathing is stiff. The walking looks great though.