Quote Originally Posted by Jeeqbit View Post
They literally didn't add it in Endwalker at all. They literally didn't announce it in the first Fan Fest, despite announcing everything else such as a Deep Dungeon, Variants, Ultimates and Lifestyle Content. They didn't announce it at the second Fan Fest either.

They made a slight hint as if they weren't sure they were going to do it, but not announcing it along with everything else at the first Fan Fests usually means we are not getting it.

After those Fan Fests, feedback continued to be produced and videos went out about the need for a Eureka-like area.

So now this is not a hint. They actually announced it.
They didn't add it because they decided to try other content, like Criterion (which is 50/50) and Island Sanctuary, which... well, there's enough problems with it. Now they know roughly what to do with Criterion, and open field just might have been delayed to work on it more. They never said they were going to give up that kind of content