I ought to link you to the lore section on WoW for some stories
Stories are not as out-of-place as you think, Alrik. Even in some games that don't seem to have much of a story, if you dig a little deeper you'll find something. Morrowind had a good story, The Witcher had a good story.
Of course, Diablo series doesn't have all that much story in it, but that's why I never really played it much. Most "Action-RPG" suffer from being a story too much actually - they really don't allow the player to play a different role, other than be the main character in the story - or even more than one character in the story (Demon Stone, for instance). I don't really consider those RPG's at all, more like Action-Adventure games. Be honest, How much different is gameplay in the RPG Demon Stone from the Action Adventure Legacy of Kain: Defiance? Legacy of Kain: Defiance, that game series had what was perhaps the best story ever for a PC game; and it's not even an RPG!
There are those that like the story in RPG's (us), there are those that like the hack-and-slash combat in RPG's (not us), there are those who like interesting quests and profound NPC's with intelligent dialogue (us) and there are those who like to skip dialogue and fireball every village in the game (not us). For a company to remain in existance, they have to have enough elements to please both groups, and it's a precarious balance. Some go too far one way (Diablo series) some go too far the other way (PS:T) and both have their hardcore fan base who will swear it's the best game ever. The truth is somewhere in the middle, and that's where a company should go with their game.