OP, you're lacking a fundamental misunderstanding of how a good story is told. You seem to think that these types of stories have exact, preplanned beats they need to hit. And most stories do. But the best ones follow those beats as a direct consequence of actions taken. Look at how Game of Thrones ended: D&D clearly looked at the things that needed to happen and then just forced it to happen. Characters developed over nearly a decade acted completely against what they had been in the past, travel time made no sense, and overall it just became an absolute mess.

One of the big reasons Shadowbringer's story is so lauded is because much of our actions are a result of organic storytelling; decisions don't happen because they need to happen, they happen because that's what our character would do.