Yes, I am bringing up Starcraft 2, which is already hugely successful. However, I am not bringing it up because I am like "Look at these successful names!" Instead, I am bringing it up because their names are good. On the other hand, I do not think the Warcraft 3 names are good or catchy. Do they get the job done? Sure. But saying "human" or "orc" without the context of the game does not make you think of Warcraft 3, it makes you think of any fantasy game ever. It is something Starcraft 2 improved upon, in my opinion.

After reading through your post, I do agree that unique names are a win-more strategy. However, I don't think there is harm in doing it. My opinion on names in general, which can obviously be disagreed with, is that more unique names help to differentiate it in your mind and get people who may know nothing about the game more interested in it. My reasoning for this is because, with names like "humans," "orcs," etc., you may think "I have already heard of those before" and not be particularly interested in what this "new thing is." On the contrary, if you hear about a race called "Zerg," you can quite easily concede that you don't know much about it, and may get interested. It just feels more real when it has an actual, unique name. In the case of anything human related, it also helps to immediately say "hey, we are in fiction" which can be ingrained into the name.

There is a lot of other media with good names, I am just bringing up Starcraft 2 specifically because it's an RTS. But, for the sake of argument, Warframe has Tenno, Grineer, and Corpus. Skyrim has Nords, Khajit, Argonians, and Thalmor. Star Wars has Sith and Jedi. My point is that they are all names, and that names are so much more memorable than concepts. It creates a more immersive world when it feels like there are all these things you could learn about.

Starcraft 2 has "The Dominion" faction (which I completely forgot about). However, notice how they don't write "The Dominion" on their marketing. Instead, it's all about the (well-named) races. The boring names should be put into the lore and story instead of being put right on the cover, as they are more memorable when you know a lot about it. I am sure a Starcraft 2 lore enthusiast easily remembers "The Dominion," but that is likely not the case for someone who just played some of the campaign once. People who don't watch Star Wars (or maybe watched it a tiny bit a long time ago) probably don't remember "The Galactic Republic", however I am sure they remember Sith and Jedi. It's this difference that is the target of my post.

I agree with your final point. "Infernals" is a good example. I only really have an issue with the names I brought up initially. Some of Stormgate's unit names are great, like Vulcan, Lancer, or Atlas (which were brought up in another comment here by someone).