I've been worried about the state of the game for awhile now, due to the predictable patch rotation, but when they officially announced SB I didn't quite panic, but I definitely felt legitimate concern. An Asian themed expansion would usually be reserved as a Get Out of Jail Free card, as the devs are JP. It's a sort of "comfort zone" development; since they're most familiar with the theme, they can easily build off of it and run with ideas. Essentially, a "we're out of ideas so let's do something easy for us" deal.

They played that card on the second expansion.

Basing my prediction off of other games, the next expansion will either be super-tech or SPAAAAAAAAAAACE