What I still don't understand is how a weaker patch than the rest proves the game is going downhill. Especially given the context around it. Nothing happened because there isn't much to happen, and they're laying down the foundation for said stuff to happen in the future.

...if that last sentence made no sense to you halfway through, dw, I'm sleepy. It stopped making sense to me too but... hey, at least I tried.

Point is.

Giving Avy-D the benefit of the doubt and just summing this up as "someone clearly dissatisfied with the game's direction feeling upset at how the game is currently going and irritated that a major expansion isn't establishing anything major past a side character and her opposite"... yeah, I guess you can understand why people feel frustated. And knowing how these threads go when it comes to Endwalker... yeah, opinions range from "really good" to "what the hell did you do to the plot". That latter camp where people are somehow dissatisfied with the plot and the way it got "resolved" goes on to criticise everything the devs do thereon. Because "all the bad stuff will therefore be a byproduct of their initial failure". As in "they're digging themselves deeper", as it were.

And I guess that's fine? I can't change your opinion, no one certainly will, so if you dislike the plot or elements of it, you're entitled to disliking them just as much as the next guy.

But at that point, isn't your opinion bias? If everything "bad" that happens since is building on to a bad pile to the point where you can't enjoy the game anymore, you sure you're not seeing it from a place where you're just going to already view something weak as extremely negative? If you have an expectation that things will be bad, your mind will see any small detail you don't like as a "gotcha!" moment to add to the trash pile. And that isn't really fair. Not on the game, but also not on yourself. Because then, your experience of the game is tainted by what you alone feel is right without taking into account whether or not the game is doing well despite it. And there are plenty of factors as to why the game is doing well despite it outside of a narrative you no longer enjoy.

The game isn't going downhill just because you say so. You need to present proof. Otherwise yeah; the game feels like crap because you're allowing yourself to feel like crap all the time. Rather than taking a step back, look objectively at what sort of game you're playing and the sort of dev team you're dealing with, and accept that that's just how things are. Because the stuff Avy-D clamours over are major things that come from the structure of the game and the overall design it has. It's stuff that, for there to be changes, you need substantial proof that it's not working rather than loose threads. And so far, he hasn't presented proof, only hearsay and his own opinion of what's fact or not.

Because the game IS NOT averse to change. At all. Stuff has changed and things were experimented with for years simply because the fans asked for it. And, sure, it took a long while, all that jazz... but unfortunately, for better AND for worse, that's the sort of team we got. Sometimes they drag things out, and it's a flaw. Sometimes they give us something interesting and it's not a flaw. So if there WERE evidence that the game was going downhill, surely the game would have changed by now. And Square would be among the first to notice and quantify it.

So really. Where's the proof?

Because we know why the patch is weak. We know what to expect, we know things are coming. And for that, yeah, establishing moments usually are the weakest parts of any story. Since you're really just expositing and laying the groundwork.
If the situation is that dire, then where's the proof that this isn't working?