...might have to say goodbye to Lurkers on Tich :(

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I'm curious why you think that. There is nothing magical about level 40 that suddenly stops the ganking. Horde still swarms me as soon as they see me, and every other level ?? I see gladly chases me for several minutes just to kill me. I don't call it PvP fighting when I'm fighting two-three Horde, all much higher level than me. I call it ganking. Mount is no good, they have mount too. And they frequently have Mithril Spurs, Carrot on a Stick and all that so they can catch me most of the time.
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Getting a mount made a huge difference in how often I was ganked. Getting jumped while fighting a monster still happens, but getting ganked while traveling is cut down, as it's just too much work to run someone down and dismount them, even with carrot and spurs. And hell, you could get spurs for about 50s and a carrot isn't too tough to get, there's hardly any reason not to carry them with you.

I frequently hear these three areas mentioned as a plus for Alliance, which baffles me. When you're Alliance, once you reach level 20 you're screwed because every area you would want to go to after that is contested and there you're prime meat for any and all Horde gankers who feel like messing up your day. From there on out it only gets worse.
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Alliance get 3 20-30 zones that are effectively uncontested, no Horde flight points. Horde gets Thousand Needles, but the 30-35 area (shimmering flats) is highly contested due to the presence of Gadgezan nearby. And the 20-25 content for the barrens is pretty sparse, horde characters have pretty much no choice but to go to Stonetalon, Ashenvale, or (god forbid) Hillsbrad for these levels, all zones that at least have alliance flight points. Even Stonetalon, which has only a minor alliance outpost is pretty well contested, especially in the charred vale, and Sun Rock is a favorite locale for Alliance raids on Tich.

And if you want to gank, Horde has it easier too. Redridge is filled with level 15s to 18s or so running around, just waiting for a nice Horde-gank. There's plenty of victims in Duskwood too, somewhere around level 22-26.

But for Alliance you have to check Stonetalon or Ashenvale and see if there is any Horde foolish enough to not stay in the Barrens. And as you said, Orgrimmar is so close to both those areas, and reinforcements could be coming at any time.
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Hillsbrad. And Duskwood, Wetlands, and Redridge are far away from major Alliance cities? You could have fooled me. I don't think ease of finding ganking targets is any sort of issue. It's super easy for both sides, and reinforcements are always close by.

And slightly off-topic, Horde also has two instance dungeons (Ragefire and Wailing) where they can find some nice drops and quest rewards while Alliance has one (Deadmines).
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I'd say that WC and Deadmines cancel each other out, and while Stockades might not be very impressive, neither is RFC. And since RFC is so low level any gear you get out of it will basically be replaced with a day or two.

I'm not one to say that Alliance = Easy Mode. But I don't think Horde have significant advantages in the ways you suggest either. The grass may always be greener on the other side, but I think that having 3 20-30 zones with no Horde outposts and not having to endure the Hillsbrad experience gives the Alliance a slight advantage in ease of leveling.