If you care about racials, there's no question, roll orc and don't think twice. Orc racials are definitively superior for pvp even before you start factoring in the size thing.
That said, I would suggest that you never choose your race based on racials. Choose your race based on lore and aesthetics. I know for you this doesn't help since you love the lore but not the aesthetics.
Personally, I will roll nelf or human and will be starting a petition to allow us to skin both Tauren and Orcs so that I can level leather working faster.
This is all incredible information. It’s so funny I thought I had analyzed it from every angle but I actually never even considered the larger hit box as being a decisive factor in PVP...
Being a good player has a lot to do with timing and baiting out cooldowns. This is especially true for melee players who are often trying to bait out cooldowns while casters are typically trying to juke melee interrupts. Part of being able to dodge cooldowns or CC has to do with positioning and movement. A good warrior will try to bait out an early frost nova while jumping out of its range. While this will be challenging for a warrior due to leeway, it will be impossible for a tauren warrior to perform consistently. The tauren will just be hit by everything and will be able to hit everything. I foresee a high representation of Tauren Warriors played by streamers. Why? Because they have support. They have people who will heal them 100% of the time, both in the world and in BG's. If you have constant support, playing a tauren could be a lot of fun. For the average guy without that support, tauren will be a nightmare.
Again, we are trailing off quite far from the original aesthetics conversation which is entirely subjective. I am only going this direction due to the comment on Orc hardiness.
We had a good talk about hardiness here: https://barrens.chat/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=1337&p=9426&hilit=hardiness#p9426
Especially when warrior, rogue and pally are really the only stun classes to worry about.
My reply to many comments regarding the value of Orc racials compared to Undead racials. "Okay, so of the 3 fear classes Hardiness works better as a counter for 2/3rds of them and warlocks are underplayed... But how else will I get value from hardiness? Hammer of Justice (paladin), Bear Bash, Pounce (druid), Intimidate, Improved concus shot (hunter), Impact (mage), Kidney shot, Cheap shot, Gouge, Mace spec(rogue), War stomp (tauren - duels), Intercept, Charge, Concuss Blow, Mace spec (warrior), Blackout (priest), various items like tidal charm (mandatory for high level pvp) and unstoppable force - the premier 2hand welfare epic wielded by a ton of the community (and other stun based weapons), grenades (used by all serious pvpers and top tier raiders)... I mean the list goes on and on... 30% chance to resist, no internal cooldown... This doesnt even account for the other incredibly strong racials an Orc has (pending your class). " -Me
There are a stupid amount of stuns in this game. AND most of those stuns are on a short cooldown. Hardiness will provide more value than Tauren racials overall.
And do not forget: Tauren anthem!
Kodo are legit almost reason enough for me to roll horde. I won't, but it's close.
Back in vanilla I used a model editor to swap my mehanostrider model with a kodo model and ran around with a kodo mount. Nobody else could see it, but I could. A gnome on a kodo was an awesome thing to see.
I don't care much for PVP so a lot of the statistical/size stuff doesn't matter too much for me regarding Tauren. That being said, I love Tauren and have a whole bunch. I can't stop rolling cows.
No, you should not play tauren. Pandas are better.