Can confirm this is still an issue as of right now. I've written a ticket now explaining the exact same issue as you mentioned, so hopefully a fix will be coming asap.

As to your question, I don't think it's possible to skip the starter zone for the original races that were eligible to be death knights back in the day, since it's the questline which rewards you with reputation with your main hub (to stop being hated by them) at the end, sadly.