The slow paced leveling worked out pretty well, because you always had a reason to keep going but without pressure to get at Max.
Like you want to get lvl 10 for the first talent, then you may get a piece of gear (some green shit but it is so rare that you just want to put that one really bad) that requires lvl 12, so the next profession level required lvl 15, and 18 you get a nice spell.
But while on this, there is no rush, you will always have dungeons to do while leveling, even if it takes a while to get there, quests make you wander around a lot, especially all fetch and delivery quests.
Those times were good, you took the time to appreciate small things. Vanilla was not a race game, you didn't get points for going faster, you got 'points' for going slow doing exploration, finding hidden things (eastern eggs) or quests as reward enough.