There has not been a single major patch without a critical issue since Endwalker.

[LisSquid]

I don’t see the quality drop.

People are spinning honeyed words about SB now, even though that was the most blasted expansion to date.

There's a lot to complain about - and we should! because we all want our game to be good, and squeaky wheels get grease - but there's no feedback less helpful than "it's bad, fam." I see the general core systems getting their due attention and care, but more side activities get bungled left and right. Which is just historically how things have always gone.

[Vahlnir]

Harrrrdddd disagree. People were complaining about SHB not that long ago. That PvP was terrible, that it had unbalanced Bozja which people complained about for the entire expansion, a relic grind that pleased neither the ones who wanted a grind or the ones who didn’t want one, Delubrim, the Nier raids and storyline which barely anyone finished, the delay of DSU, release of Viera and Hrothgar which everyone complained about, no male viera, dungeon per patch reduction, the problems with voice acting in 5.4, job homogenization, complaints about the cash shop, no deep dungeon or equivalent, complaints about trusts making the game single player, etc. etc.

I don’t see the quality drop.

Other than Bozja and related content (in my opinion), you listed most of the more legitimate complaints that were made and continue to be made, which sort of indicates the complete opposite of the point you are trying to make. Unless your post was sarcasm, then carry on.

[Arzalis]

I'd say it's little things like the lack of Miqo'te ears in headgear that happened at the very start of ShB. They used to do that. There are some pretty good examples of similar headgear in ARR that have them to ShB and EW sets that don't. Now they just sell cash shop gear that cuts them off too.

Stuff like that by itself isn't a huge deal, but it adds up along with other things that you handily listed to show a trend downward. They're removing or reducing things we've typically gotten left and right. Even the things we do get have been pretty messed up lately, which would understandable for a studio who wasn't used to MMOs, but this game has been going on for a while. If they don't have systems to reliably test for failures under stress now, then they never will.

ShB is generally praised for it's MSQ (which I think it deserves) but with their clearly dwindling available resources, it's obvious that's where most of the focus on the game goes. The main issue with EW is the MSQ had the same level of attention at the expense of everything else, but the MSQ just didn't land for a lot of people. So I think that's why you're seeing an uptick in complaints.

Also, yeah. I wasn't sure if the one above post is sarcasm either. It pretty clearly lists objective quality issues (along with some subjective ones.)

[LisSquid]

Someone had made a graphic a while ago showing how much they have cut from unique assets. I wish I could remember the thread so I could plop it here.

[Reap00]

Housing glitch. EW queue bugs (which had to be resolved by a Redditor and not their own engineers). And now... DC visit shenanigans.

This has never happened at this alarming frequency in HW, SB, and even ShB.

What is going on?

None of the above issues are critical. Critical would be something that would no longer allow people to play the game at all. These are inconveniences that are swiftly resolved. Try again troll.

[EaraGrace]

Other than Bozja and related content (in my opinion), you listed most of the more legitimate complaints that were made and continue to be made, which sort of indicates the complete opposite of the point you are trying to make. Unless your post was sarcasm, then carry on.

Point being that EW is not unique for those suggested problems, and those claiming the game has recently struggled are we wrong. Given that EW has so far avoided or addressed several of the problems that plagued SHB, I’d say things are fine.

[Raikai]

I mean with 6.2 being LATE August and still not bringing all of the promised features until 6.25...

Just an observation, that they never deliver all announced features in the .X release... Traditionally it's split in half between that and the .X.5.

[Vahlnir]

Given that EW has so far avoided or addressed several of the problems that plagued SHB, I’d say things are fine.

Not really. Most of these problems still exist, regardless of whether they were present an expansion ago or not. As far as the state of the game is concerned, things are probably considered fine by a lot of people, but that doesn't mean it is all sunshine and rainbows and magical unicorns.

[Theodric]

I don't recall ShB being nearly as divisive as EW. Especially when accounting for opinions voiced by players who have been invested in the game for a decent amount of time.

[Catwho]

Housing glitch. EW queue bugs (which had to be resolved by a Redditor and not their own engineers). And now... DC visit shenanigans.

This has never happened at this alarming frequency in HW, SB, and even ShB.

What is going on?

Software development of a mature product.

Source: I work in software development for a mature product. Bugs happen.