As somebody who's been here for a while, I can say that alliance is very much dead at the moment since many good players went retail, many focus only on arena and some went horde. Also what is mentioned above, there is a large number of low geared players who can't contribute to the win in any way, they are there to lose or to be carried. However, it's one thing when you have 2-3 lowbies in a bg and completely another when you have 5-6. One thing I can also add is that it is possible to win, with an extremely strong healer and few strong dps, so the best way to win is to make a premade.
And punishing people for going afk is pointless because of the very reason why they go afk-lowbies go afk cause they are useless either way and geared players go afk cause there are too many lowbies. If you wipe at start, it's a loss, so might as well make it faster and try your luck in the next bg.

