While this doesn't contradict your point, I think this because there's less ambiguity when you whiff than when you hit with no damage. I think if you did the latter and some kind of "NO DAMAGE" text floated above your target's head, you'd be just as frustrated as you would be if you were missing. Case in point, I get that same frustrated feeling whenever I attack a MOB in CoH who has some kind of "no hit I" buff up, and I see "UNAFFECTED" float above their heads. I didn't miss, I hit but did nothing.
When you hit but do no damage, it's not always clear if you didn't deal at least 1 HP. You know you probably didn't, but it's not shoved in your face.
And Goldshire is supposed to be a full town with thousands of people, and it's three buildings in game.
My guess is the "real" Azeroth is at least 100 times larger in the cardinal scales and somewhere around 10 times larger vertically. How tall is Blackrock Spire?