Ok, I'm an avid WoW player so I might have some insight for ya.
Dismissing the game because of it being "a grind fest" is like dismissing a shooter for the "violence". Grinding is a necessary part of MMOs as yahtzee tells in his Tabula Rosa review (http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/9-Tabula-Rasa) . If there were no grind, well then the game would be Fable. A nifty slash'em up that you would only play for a week at the most.
It helps if you have played other mmorpgs before WoW to get the right perspective. I grew up on a horrible java based mmo called "Runescape". The grinding was insanely boring on that game, usually consisting of killing thousands of monsters to get a single level. The professions system on that game was also like climbing a mountain; I had to work out a huge math equation to organize how I was going to spend the next five hours straight mining hundreds of ore and smithing swords just so I could gain another single level. Grind-tastic!!
In comparison WoW is nothing like Runescape's style of level gaining. You do quests to gain experience and it doesn't take very much to get those levels. As you level up you travel the world, never staying in the same zone for too long. Runescape would level you bashing your head against a wall mowing down monsters in the same room for days. The profession system is also very straight forward, no complex math or hours spent grinding.
WoW will not ruin your life any more than a TV can. Sure you can pour hours and hours on end into it, but only if you choose to. Even the WoW loading screen will tell you to take things into moderation. There's plenty of concessions wow makes to the casual audience. For instance, when you're offline you accumulate exp bonuses to make your leveling go faster. That said however, you can't expect to only play 2-3 hours a week and reach the cap level in a timely matter.
My final advice is to get a free trial. You never know if you like or hate something based on what other people tell you. Try it out for yourself, there's nothing to lose and if you love it, a lot to gain.
Furthermore if you are grindaphobic, look up Blizzard's deal of "Recruit a Friend" before you buy a subscription. If you use the deal, you get triple exp gains shuttling you into the better bits.
I think the point made was that WoW although designed to maximise the player's time spent, is about as much of a grind as one can spend doing well...anything too much. And too much of anything is a bad thing. 
