What? That isn't relevant for so many reasons...
Firstly - they weren't a "playable race" - they had archers in the human faction.
Secondly - not the same games...at all.
Thirdly - They weren't trainable/playable on both orcs and humans at the same time. Which was the initial point.
The high elf units were on the 'human' faction in WC 3 but Quel'thelas was not part of the Alliance in Reign of Chaos, and Kael'thas' alliance with Garithos ended with Garithos trying to get them all killed, and then trying to execute them for allying with naga rather than letting Garithos get them killed.
Then in BC they joined the horde because Sylvanas offered them genuine aid while the Alliance spied on them.
Considering Quel'thelas left the Alliance after the second war and only briefly worked with Garithos after the third, they've been with the horde longer than they were ever worth the Alliance. And even their relationship to Dalaran was ruined by Jaina's overreaction to the Sunreaver incident and Dalaran has gone neutral again anyway apparantly.
Politics and eye color are not enough to make a separate playable race. High Elves are just NPCs until they look drastically different from Blood Elves.
The only debacle going on is the discussion itself. The lore is all there; Blood Elves ARE High Elves and Blizzard has already stated as much. Alliance now, technically,has Void corrupted High Elves. The options are all there, whiners just aren't happy with the options they have.
Oh man , I hope they include some war story arc between blood an high elves so that blood elves can wipe them the fuck out once and for all , that's a solution to the debacle .
Which wouldn't make any sense. Being the same race and all - any customizations that they have (such as the face paint/feathers/tattoos/etc) would also be something blood elves would have available to them culturally. Lor'themar and Sylvanas were rangers with Alleria at the same time - they just didn't choose to paint their faces.
But hey. One person's preference for finger painting is enough to justify a playable race's identity.
It's all just absurd. Imagine for a moment if they gave the Horde playable humans with new tattoos, new hair cuts, and literally no other changes physiologically.
We could call them High Humans! Makes sense!