#359 - Sept. 1, 2009, 8:11 p.m.
To clarify one last time:
High Elves were Highborne at one point. Not all Highborne became High Elves and Naga.
The long, eventual evolution of the High Elves does not automatically occur if one uses arcane magic.
Concerning models, you are forgetting one key factor in Dire Maul: that there is a Blood Elf in the east wing, and that she used the old Blood Elf model before Burning Crusade. Had we wanted the other NPCs in Dire Maul to be High Elves, they would have been. They are Night Elves.
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/underdev/diremaul.html
The preview page, written just before patch 1.3 a few years ago, mentions that they are Night Elves. High Elves are not mentioned.
I would understand the frustration if this were a retcon, but this is not. This is simply a matter of someone being mistaken in their knowledge of the lore.