Revelations from Patch 7.2: Seekers of Eternity

[Thighland]

What's interesting about that, is that in 7.1 we had Gulool Ja's story of trying to learn about his parents. Only after Zoraal Ja's death did we get a story that needs him to be a person, so the humanizing scenes of him only come posthumously, and only in relation to what needs to further Gulool Ja's story. It really demonstrates that it's not that they failed to make Zoraal Ja relatable at first: it's that they refused to, until it suited the story they were telling.

While I doubt that it was the writers' intention for Zoraal'Ja to be completely unrelatable in 7.0 (and even if it was, it didn't really work for most people I've talked to), I personally completely agree with you that 7.1 retroactively helped make Zoraal'Ja a more 'real' character.
In my opinion that is the same thing Calyx needs. He's arguably a complex character with a very long history and plenty of influence, but we've only known him for one patch, which is not a lot.