While similar, it's not the same idea as Wyr. You'll find Wyr in HJ to be a pretty encompassing idea, reflecting and affecting many elements of your character, not just "+1 strength" or "+5 damage to fireball."
The inscription stuff seems like a neat, yet generic, way to expand WoW's mechanics. Again, while Wyr are mechanical, the emphasis is not on mechanics so much as it is on Lore and your character looking the way you WANT it to, not what the artist made for the graphic.
As for WoW's graphics, they are very dated and sat next to newer games (Age of Conan, for example), looks old. However, I will say this. Because the graphics are highly stylized, they have aged well. Even after 5 years the game doesn't look half bad -- compare it to Everquest 2 where realism was the focus at the time, so it feels very dated now. Whereas WoW has aged pretty well, and though inferior to most modern graphics engines, still looks pretty decent because of the art style.
Had they gone for realism, it would be in bad shape now. Very smart move, on their part.