I'm a 55 balance druid right now, ever since level 42, and lemme tell ya... I LOVE IT! Me and the treants... so much fun. With feral, yea you can take on a lot of mobs in bear, but you can do the same for Balance as well. Gather up some mobs with moonfire / insect swarm, about 4-5, Force of Nature + Barkskin + Hurricane = teh sex. With the armor contribution AND the 20% from barkskin, the mobs will hardly hit for anything. Then if the mobs are down to about 50% or lower, you can war stomp, regrowth + rejuv, (eventually lifebloom once I hit Outland =D) back to boomkin, and take out the rest by reapplying moonfire and insect swarm, wrath, and maybe meleeing a bit to get back your mana. With Lunar Guidance, and Dreamstate, you can really do some serious, fast leveling. And the beautiful thing is, is that if I were in bear doing that, I'd still be spamming swipe, frenzied regen and mangle and still be attacking them whilst I'm in boomkin looting / drinking. Celestial focus is very nice too, and I've 2 shot mobs my level with starfire. TWO SHOT! I love balance because it offers the armor of Bear, and (roughly) the dmg of cat form. those 2 things combined is what I love. I personally <3 spellcasting as well, so other people might still not like boomkin.
Also, the dance is totally worth it =P
Walking up to some random dude and reading their response to the... strange... dance moves of the boomkin is awesome. <3!
And maybe you dont have all the gear for BOOMKIN just yet, so that's probably your problem... and it took me a while to figure out some good ways to use my spells wisely in different situations. Also, in feral you'll be able to rip up the casters, and in boomkin you'll rip up the melee. So keep that in mind. What I usually do is Starfire, starfire, moonfire, insect swarm, and depending on their health, melee or wrath or nature's grasp + starfire. There's a lot of different spells to your disposal, so use 'em wisely. GL!