I'm not sure if this is "pressure" that we experience. from wangyue's blog

This has now become regular release of new content WOTLK Gold . It must feel like you're close to being on the right track at this time.It's been freeing. We've been thinking about our game's design and the way we distribute parts of the game in a slightly different manner. 

It was in the past that we released more discreet patches--a patch is simply "this amount of" content, and you get it at this time and everything in the game is made available. As we start building content ahead of time, if we've gotten an item in the Tomb of Sargeras in the game before it's complete, it's the perfect time to put us inside the Tomb of Sargeras. This will allow us to release the raid, or any content that's time-gated at the date that makes sense. It's not a good idea to make it available too early.

If we'd launched it in 7.2 I'd suggest that it'd probably feel like we didn't have enough time to play Nighthold. I'm sure there are plenty of guilds working their way through some of the last bosses, and if we'd waited longer, it'd be like being staying in Nighthold all night. It's not uncommon for a raid to drag on and lose your enthusiasm, and so separating these two elements has been liberating. It gives us a little more room to listen to feedback and see how that people are responding to the game they're playing and release content when we feel it's appropriate.

With the size of 7.2 was Did you feel an extra pressure to provide more with the next patch? Are you feeling that gives you the freedom to focus solely on class modifications and the sort of things you'd expect from .5 patches?

I'm not sure if this is "pressure" that we experience. I mean, as WoW's development continues the team has become an inch or two bigger and our efficiency has probably increased as well, so patches are becoming larger as time passes. It doesn't mean every patch needs to be bigger than the last. 7.2.5 certainly isn't nearly as huge as 7.2 It's not, however, never meant to be. It's more of an opportunity to discover other parts of Azeroth that aren't as closely related to The Legion storyline. 7.2 covered the assault on the Broken Shore and the cheap WOW WOTLK Classic Gold Legionfall campaign, and both are very much in the story of Legion that is working with Illidan and fighting the Legion.