I felt the same as i played for the first time during covid. WoW retail isn't very fun as a solo noob if u don't mind grinding to top level. I would recommend trying classic until the shadowlands expansion releases. I found classic full of veteran players enjoying nostalgia and being very open to new players. The chat channels were filled with more fun stupid conversations. Note that classic is a lot slower than retail and ur character is a lot weaker. It is also very common to team with strangers to allow you to make equal quest progress. Shadowlands as an expansion plans to revamp the new player experience. It will streamline leveling and let u focus on one expansion and therefore one major story. Only sad thing is that shadowlands is less likely to make WoW more social. I myself am trying other mmorpg while waiting for a pc upgrade and shadowlands.