I'll answer WoW as I've not played the others
Infact there isn't really a point If you think World of Warcraft has the same amount of things to do as ED there isn't any point in continuing this further i'll agree to disagree
Not sure if I explained it right, or you missed the point on purpose :S
All MMOs have half a dozen actual game play mechanics, the only thing that changes as you progress is the size/colour and shape of what you interact with - but you re still repeating the same actions over and over.
Go and kill X, come back to Y
Go and find A, bring back to B
They dress them up with stories, but the actual mechanics used are the same.
As for dungeons/raids - they are just a linear run. Kill trash until you find the sub boss. Kill said boss. (number of sub bosses changes depending on level of dungeon/raid).
Once all subs are gone, go find the actual boss and proceed with the 10 minute fight - wait for daily/ weekly timer to do it again.
You end up with the typical skill rotation in your tray with the "standard" skill points being spent so every character ends up exactly the same.
Run in, 1,2,3,4 <cool downs> 1,2,3,4 <cool downs> 1,2,3,4 and so on. Every pack of wolfs, every group of Orcs and every raid boss;
1,2,3,4 <wait for cool downs> 1,2,3,4, <wait for cool downs>
At least ED has not go to the point where there is "standard" ship configs for combat. There is for hauling and exploring, but so far you can bounty hunt or pirate with most items. Not sure on smuggling if there is a best set up as I don't do it.
All games, I'm sorry to say, do boil back to the same core mechanics just repeated over and over. The only things that change is how well the Dev teams can fluff them up to mask that you are repeating yourself.
Blizzard are quite good at throwing fluff stories to distract folks, but with years of practice I'd hope so.
Next time you play WoW (or any MMO), go through your quests and strip the fluff away and actually look at what you are leaving town to do.