I think me and most of the player base just hit accept and look at the quest tracker on where to go. WoW lore lost relevance with me when BC hit. I honestly do not care about the story at all anymore.
Some of the main story quests can warrant a bit of reading, but by and large its just accept and then go to quest marker.
The new UI will make it a bit easier to figure out what you're missing, but until you have a way of sorting items by their tints, making a non-set style is hard.
Some stuff is popular because of colors or semi-unique tints, some for the models (e.g. Nocturnal hat from vanilla greenies), some is crafted and can sell for quite a price (Stylish Jungle Hat, about 10k gold or so, can go double that amount). You basically need to play most classes and follow all those "let's see your transomg sets" scattered over several forums, mmo-champion, us battle net, eu battle net, etc.
Yes; your stats (all of them, including your secondaries) are based on level + a small bonus of 1% per 10 ilvl above "standard for your level".
Currently, you can pick your level 19 req. bracers and put a Superior Stamina (+9 sta on it) and get a shitton (relatively speaking) of hit points. With legion, you will have exactly the same HP with enchanted or unenchanted bracers while in a BG.
