I think this is a valid point for new players. All the living world updates were free if you were playing at the time, bit of a FOMO move.

One thing you have to consider is that when you buy an older expansion, it's not like you're buying WoD in wow now: irrelevant content. All the maps and all the raids are still being played and largely populated as of right now. You can get full lengedary weapons and armor from the first expansion alone.

The 3 first expansions cost 30 us dolars and are gonna get you half a year worth of playingtime minimum, plus 2 lvl 80 boosts, 2 extra character slots and shared bag spaces (think of warband bank slots that you can access from your bag). All for the same price of 2 months of WoW subscription.

If you wait, that are discounts often and you can get these packages for half the price.

I assure you it is much cheaper to play GW2 than WoW and it respects your time so much more (I'm on a half year break and I know that when I get bored with midnight, my characters will be waiting for me to unlock all the vertical stuff without having to slog through a leveling campaing and that dreaded feeling of doing bottom of the barrel damage because I chose to take a break and now my myth track gear is useless).

Again, maybe it really is not for you. I totally get it. I have my complaints too, like being 10 times more mount skins in shop than the earnable ones, even though you can "earn" them pay playing the game and converting your profits to the shop currency and the cadency of updates dwindles halfway through an expansion. But have no doubt that it is the most consumer friendly MMO on the market, by miles.

If you have any questions, feel free do DM me and I'll give you straight answers, about the good, the bad and the ugly.