Little late to the party, but here are my thoughts. Sorry if there's any repeated points here.

MSQ

Honestly, the first thing I think about when it comes to the new story update is Estinien mistaking Alisaie for Alphinaud. That was absolutely hilarious. He even patted her on the head. I was dying. Other than that, the rest of the story was just sort of...okay. It was really cool meeting Tiamat again, I'm curious to see what part, if any, she'll have in Endwalker.

And speaking of Endwalker, I hate to say this but if Zenos and Fandaniel are the main antagonists that is going to be very underwhelming. Though I suspect the actual bad guy will be Zodiark himself. After all, Y'shtola asked us when was the last time Hydaelyn spoke to us. She and Krile have been conducting an investigation into this, and now Krile is off to Sharlayan. So I guess that's confirmed we are going there in the next expansion. The obvious answer to the question of who or what is preventing Hydaelyn from contacting us is Zodiark.

There's also a bit of mystery as to what weapon Zenos finally chose.

I also liked seeing Fordola again and her evolution as a character. I ship her and Arenvald. Speaking of the latter, it was quite obvious something bad was going to happen to him with the prominent way he was being shown at the start of the update. I had no idea Alphinaud admired him the same way he admired Estinien. But as soon as that was shown, I was like, "K so Arenvald's dead." And sure enough. He's not dead but close to it, it sounds like. I'm far more interested in Fordola and to see where she goes. A reunion with Zenos is inevitable.


YoRHa
I have thoughts on this that I'll post separately because I keep running into posting errors.

Werlyt
Welp, it happened. Gaius has been redeemed. I was afraid of that. But the writers did it in a good way. He will live on in the name of his children, who all died except Allie. The ending was a nice touch, particularly the moment with Allie and her siblings in that vision or spirit world. FIN at the end reminded me of the way they ended the Omega raids. Not quite as good, though, because I'll always remember Alpha running free and having adventures as the music from the Chocobo game played in the background.

The fight was actually really fun. Jumping from one platform to another and avoiding a ton of AOE was great. But there's a reason I didn't see any BLMs in this fight . You basically have to keep moving throughout.

So, Werlyt is free now. Gaius and Alfonse slew Valens, and I guess that's fitting. I had no connection to Valens so was glad to see the proper characters bring him to justice. It was also touching to see Gaius end Alfonse's life. So, Werlyt is free now. The Empire's end seems near.


Anyway, those are my thoughts. Looking forward to going back through this thread and reading everyone else's.