So... This is the "improved encounter design"?

[Valence]

Hasn't even cleared half of the tier
feels the need to criticize it
lmao

Do you know what game you're playing? Never expect a deviation from the norm.

I'm on the final line to clear (sabbaths) and I hold the exact same view as the OP. I'd rate those raids within the "pretty good category", but the very good category of the same old model and gimmicks. It's still chokefull of spread/pair/light parties mechanics, clones, chariot/dynamo, etc. The raid quality is good, but it's the model that's getting incredibly stale, and considering they promised new surprises and a willingness to work on making encounters creative again, then so far, I think they failed pretty hard, and i'll change my opinion the day they have actually something to show for it.

I dont know how many times people need to say it, but play a game for what it is NOW, not for what the dev says it will be in the future. If you're not enjoying it, why are you playing?

No need to get into strawmen either. Nobody here and especially not the OP has said that they have stopped enjoying the game.

The new encounter design includes the current savage fights, but there is some context:

The first tier is always intentionally easier to account for people adjusting to job changes, new rotations and new players. Then they make it tougher as people are used to the new expansion's gimmicks.

People asked for encounters to get less homogenized, like jobs, and the devs have promised that they were working this expansion on making the encounters more creative. So far, they're not a lot, that's what the OP has been saying. Nobody talked about difficulty. Nobody is contesting that the first tier is always easier. We weren't promised more difficult fights, we were promised more creative and unique fights.

But honestly when compared to another one of Yoshi's recent declaration on how "they're quite happy with their current model" right now, I think we're just expecting them to change the game model when they're not willing to. So I'm not holding my breath for anything actually pleasing our crowd here.