How disconnected are you? The time spent isnt the issue.
I had a few friends try WoW for the first time recently, out of 3 only 1 stuck with it and made it to the endgame and now plays regularly.
The other 2? They left due to 2 main reasons.
1. No actual challange, dungeons, quests etc... It was all stupidly easy, and seeing 4 heirloomed out players butcher the instance didnt help.
2. Outleveling the stories, some of the stories they were really interested in and finished anyway, but they still said... The story felt disconnected and rushed. I agree, WoW could take a page out of SWTORs book in regards to how to make a good lvling quest experiance. (To be fair that is about the only thing good about SWTOR these days...)