I have started over, recompiled and used all of the files from the "*_master.zip" archives.
I am on step 7, trying to extract the vmaps. I executed ad.exe just fine and it's folders and files were created successfully. I compiled the vmapextractor.exe, copied it to the world of warcraft client folder, executed, it ran successfully, but there is no folder called "vmaps" that i am supposed to copy into my "compiled" folder. I only found "Buildings", "dbc", and "maps".
EDIT: I found the vmaps_assembler, compiled it, copied the exe into the warcraft directory, created a .bat file pointing to "vmap_assembler.exe Buildings vmap", recompiled the "Buildings" folder using the "vmapextractor.exe", and then successfully compiled the files into the folder called "vmaps" by executing the .bat file I created.
EDIT2: I learned how to read.