(1) Its pretty obvious last minute changes were made to the plot to make it more of a "surprise". I assume its because players predicted too much, and every expansion has been twisty, so they need the conclusion to also have twists.

(2) Some important stuff was rushed. (for different reasons) and some stuff was dragged out, due to not really having a point to something that was already too far in development.

potential was there, and good moments in EW are there. i cant say giving EW more development time would have fixed it, but it is what it is.