The official forums is one of the few places I've seen others say they feel safe posting critical feedback and even here I see people are trying to shut down conversation. I've been PMed on Reddit by people telling me they didn't like EW and can't express themselves because they'll be downvoted into oblivion if they do. One person told me you'll get dog piled on if you say anything negative in the official discord. Frankly, if you don't want to read opinions about EW that aren't positive you have a lot of options. Let people who didn't like it discuss it.

Anyway, my main complaints revolve around time travel and Venat/Hydaelyn. The time loop resulting in a bootstrap paradox, the sundering being intentional, Venat keeping her memories, etc. The ending of Elpis (the best part of the expansion) was nonsensical, unsatisfying, and unfortunately soured the remaining story for me. We're supposed to believe Venat is this tragic heroine when she withheld information about the Final Days and destroyed her own people/civilization because they weren't dealing with their trauma and grief after an apocalypse to her liking. Additionally, she followed the roadmap to the future the WoL had gifted her, so now the player character is an accomplice to 12k years' worth of atrocities. The only people who have more blood on their hands are Hermes and Meteion.

They even go as far as to have Hydaelyn's primal model a literal angelic figure, in case you weren't browbeaten enough as to how benevolent and good she was, while Zodiark appears demonic despite that not befitting his summoners, his heart, or his purpose. As a player, your dialog options towards her are exclusively affirmative, you cannot express dislike for what she's done and all of the NPCs are on her side for that full gaslight effect.

I didn't care enough about the rest to have a strong opinion about it, but the stars of the Hydaelyn & Zodiark saga were so disappointing in how they were handled.