Can 7.0 focus on a storyline without the philosophizing

[TheDecay]

I wholeheartedly agree with you. The entire 6.0 EW MSQ and the whole concepts of Dynamis and "The universe and its world have fallen to depression and that's why they're all dead" is quite boring to me. Perhaps one of the most boring universe-themed concepts I have seen so far. I'd really enjoy a return to the ARR/HW style of story-writing with its grey morality.

Exactly. Once or twice is fine but they've been doing this for six years now and it's really getting stale. There's really only so many times they can use the existentialist/defying fate trope before it completely loses its power.

[PEANUT]

Exactly. Once or twice is fine but they've been doing this for six years now and it's really getting stale. There's really only so many times they can use the existentialist/defying fate trope before it completely loses its power.

There is also beauty in consistency. These characters have been around since 1.0 days, they're not gonna just drastically change, they have developed their personalities and characteristics to become who they are all these years as we've watched their progression. If Y'shtola suddenly became lazy or an a**hole a character that wouldn't make sense right? So their belief in friendship and lending a hand and never giving up is gonna play into how they react to the events of the story, so yes, all of these expansions are going to include things that challenge those characteristics, such as existential crises, defying fate, etc...

[fulminating]

If Y'shtola suddenly became lazy or an a**hole a character that wouldn't make sense right? .

Y'shtola's character is now essentially "cat in a humanoid body", either or both would be entirely in keeping.

To answer the broader point, why should I remain invested when the same thing that worked last expansion and the one before is also being used this expansion to the same effect? There's only so many times the same story can be told in different settings before it wears thin or outstays its welcome. We are already at this point, and it's not like stuffing an entire calamity into a potato wasn't straining credulity to begin with. This isn't portal after all.
Personally I think the tone and characterisation of ARR and HW hit a pretty good spot that hasn't really been matched since. I don't think either was perfect by any stretch, but the characters weren't all an amorphous, interchangeable mass all parroting the same answer in unison, like a particularly echoey reddit.