It should have been 2 expansions, yes.

and IMO Elpis should not have been a zone, but rather Elidibus should not have had the treatment he did in ShB. I will say Elidibus being offed this early in combination with Fandaniel and the ShB > EW setup is largely what ruined some parts of EW, notably pacing. It's difficult to replicate the sense of urgency and danger that was found in ShB since it was present from the start... Not this quasi-nonsense with the towers, especially when it didn't really start to rear its head realistically until 87/88. Sure, we had Vanaspati at 85, but we were taken to Elpis shortly thereafter away from the danger.

I don't think EW was bad, or not as bad as people would like to suggest, but I don't think it had the right setup in ShB to be contained within a single expansion