I definitely don't hold it to god status. Some features are just annoying, it's ludicrously difficult for ungrouped non-healers in early levels, there's like 1 graveyard per zone and hardly any flightpaths (there's no flightpath in Elwynn or Dun Morogh for example). 1hr Hearthstones. But that's the game that got me hooked, and this is literally an excercise in nostalgia. Playing through the beta atm (18 Hunter, 14 Mage, 9 Warrior) and it feels like it did before. I keep firing up retail (I don't have BFA) and playing for a few minutes before feeling meh. This beta I've sunk hours into. It took all day yesterday (well, 7 hours which is my playable day) to get 2 levels on Hunter. If you didn't play vanilla, I honestly don't think this will do anything for you.
We didn't use DKP in our guild hence losing the bag. We just judged who was realistically going to use an item and rolled for it (using /roll, then the raid leader would then trade the item). Mains over ALTs, for example, mainspec over offspec. It worked well for progression, we got all the server firsts for a long time.