Yes, 100%. I don't think anyone would genuinely claim that AV is "just arenas with 80 people".
Beyond the scale and steps, warfronts also have pushback from the enemy side, quite different choices in how resources are spent/gathered, have (particularly dark shore) a much higher variation of enemy type and distribution, and fairly unique AI interaction.
If you toss PvP into warfronts you basically get a moba epic BG.
If you toss PvP into scenarios you basically have watered down PvP island expeditions.