Nice read.
It is too early for me to decide between wow or ffxiv. I do think though that the story you play in FF is a very very big plus over wow. I know there seems to be big lore in wow but it just isn't presented to you very well. You can play your character to 90 and still not have a clue about what's going on.
But all in all, wow does almost everything very very well. It's as polished as an mmo can get i guess.
It will take some time to see if FF can take wow's crown. Or at least a part of it.
Personally I don't think they will but they are off to a good start. The slow mechanics in combat will break this game for a lot of people though.