Quote Originally Posted by NelaryNeaky View Post
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
They never said they were going to give up deep dungeons either. But they stopped adding them in Shadowbringers and then saw complaints about it so they did one for Endwalker.

They normally announce everything at the first Fan Fest but they save specifics for later, such as names, concept art and videos. They had no slide for it at the previous 2 Fan Fests despite having one for everything else. It seems like it was a response to feedback, and this feedback was mentioned, and there's nothing wrong with it being a response to feedback either. It's a good thing that they can respond to feedback before it's too late.