Yeah, Blizzard allows you to download the full client from their website.
Sure, WoW has millions of subscribers... four years later. AoC has been retail for one week. Their launch went insanely smooth, with only one period of extended down time. The game gets a little credit from me, for that. Especially when I recall WoW's launch, which ended up being so poor that Blizzard decided to give subscribers a free monoth of game time.
When it comes to AoC's PvE content, there's plenty. At launch the game included like 4-5 level 80 dungeons, and like 20 or so in grand total. This is all for a game thats main focus was PvP anyways. We're not even including guild keeps, and siege combat - player keeps are being implemented soon.
With all of these good things to look forward to, though, they're still all overshadowed by the fact that it's FunCom running the show. FunCom plain sucks when it comes to customer relations. They've got a horrible track record with this, too. Sadly, it's starting to look no different than what I've heard about AO. They also did a bait-and-switch with the DX10 functionality. They marketed the game as some huge DX10 thing, and the day before retail launch, they announced that it doesn't even have DX10 functionality yet, but will in a few months.
Although Warrior is comparing a game that has been out for four years, and is made by probably the most respected game writing company there is to a game that has been out for a week, by FunCom... I do agree that if AoC does not fix some things quickly, and if FunCom doesn't do some sort of damage control, then WotLK will be the nail in the coffin for this game. Also, that AoC probably won't ever reach the success that WoW has reached. I've also heard tons of good things about WAR, with its RvR combat.
Edit: Still, though... WoW is just the same shit, another day kind of thing. It's so old and repetitive that I can't even stand it. So I doubt I'll even be trying the expansion. I'm looking forward to Warhammer.