Not exactly. There are plenty of quests that result in skills, abilities and things which are not item driven with thousands (yes thousands) of quests there is much to this game. As much as questing is concerned so is tradeskilling. Its a pretty detailed system way too detailed for me as I prefer to kill kill kill though there are those that will find a great deal of fun and pleasure unlocking secret formual's recipies and scribing new spells.
While I have not played WoW I have met many that are playing both simultaneously. The biggest difference many have noted is WoW is more cartoony. Both worlds have lots you can see and touch. Lots of quests and lots of storylines which can take you down various paths depending on how you respond.