Regarding the first video embedded in this NYT article: I don't know how to switch on the sound to it, so without music the beginning looked quite salsa-ish to me, especially where he spins the follower endlessly with Touch'n'Go (the westies call it the "Illusion Turn").
Yes, for non-dancers WCS looks more fascinating than salsa. It's common that they tag their instagram videos with "Random partner, random song" which impresses people a lot and gets many clicks. It's true it's not choreographed, but they know the songs including lyrics by heart and the dancers are super-experienced pros.
Maybe salsa could do the same and tag videos with "Random partner, random song". I am impressed as hell when salsa celebs hit precisely the accents in social dance videos. I was sitting with jaws open when I started watching celeb videos - but then I was already a salsa dancer since many years. I guess a non-dancer would not see the same. One problem is guaguanco songs feel very strange to westerners (and even to most salsa dancers!), while everyone can groove to "Macarena" or Ed Sheeran's "Shape of you".
WCS does a good job by putting partnerwork musicality in the center of the dance, while the salsa scene is just discovering this exists.
Also these WCS competitions give them place to dance alone as a couple and have all the space to do spectacular things. Salsa improvisation competitions hardly exist, and the typical salsa shows are often not interesting enough even to salsa dancers.
The strong side of salsa is the social dancing (including the most clicked videos are from social dance), while all the WCS and BS videos are showing a couple dancing alone. But maybe people also find the thought more appealing to dance in front of spectators and impress them than to dance in a crowd.
