What I have learned
I have learned that putting up a bulleted list is akin to painting a bulls-eye on my post with a sign saying "Aim Here! Points now broken down for easier rebuttal! No need to read the rest of the post, or take it in context!".
I have also learned that If I want to make a point, I apparently need to be a lot more clear with caveats, warnings, disclaimers of "I don't see this as a problem", and the like. Any comparison between 4E and pretty much anything else will summon swarms of 4E supporters to the defense like
acacia tree ants defending their tree even if nothing actually negative was said or intended.
The purpose of my post was to rebut the notion that the aggro mechanic was in any way similar in WoW or D&D 4E and to summarize some of the points where legitimate comparisons could be drawn. There are parallels between the games, but I never said "D&D is copying from WoW" or vice versa. Nor did I claim that the parallels were in any way bad. They Do Exist. That is Okay.
Who on earth *cares* what color Magic Missiles were in any edition of D&D? When I first played WoW and saw the Arcane Missile spell, it made me think of Magic Missile. A spell that casts multiple orbs of pure energy named Arcane Missile? Clearly it was inspired by Magic Missile from D&D.
I never played 2nd edition, so the idea of talent builds was new to me when I first played WoW. I don't know if it was conceived of elsewhere before that, and you know what? I don't really care. It is still a similarity shared between the systems - even if the implementation isn't precisely the same.
Many of the features shared between the games are non-issues to me. Some of them are positives. I like that class roles are being clearly defined to help construct a party that will be effective. I also agree that those roles have always been implicit in D&D.
WoW is like D&D in many ways, and not at all like it in others. The converse is also true. They are fantasy RPG's, so there should be many points they share in common. If they played exactly the same there would be no need for anyone to play both games. Yet many people do. D&D may well have a few things it can learn from WoW. WoW has already taken much from D&D. Pointing out the similarities they share is not an attack on either system.