Synodic Scribe's "The Steady Change in Writing..." Video

[Zackneifein]

There are all sorts of reasons you could come up with to answer that, in the same way you came up with justifications for the other expansions.

It sounds like you're using "agency" in an idiosyncratic way. I'll be honest, it doesn't make much sense to me - you feel there's plenty of player agency in stories where the player character is the only one who can do a certain thing and therefore is compelled to do it? Surely that's when the player would feel the least agency then.

At the end of the day I just don't think player agency is a worthwhile metric of quality. It's like talking about the redness of an apple

Wuk Lamat isn't our friend. She is barely someone we know. The current situation of Tural is unknown to us but nothing is said about it being problematic or dangerous for the World. That's why they planted another agency for the WoL: adventure and all the marketing was about that (so much that until the very end, Wuk Lamat was absent from it).
I was hyped for that, and until lvl 91 I was waiting for it, as the WoL could be. But at the end there was nothing about adventure and that's what I'm criticizing here. The only reason for us to go to Tural fell flat.

You don't seem to care that the WoL have a role in the story, I do. That's why I prefer MMORPG like GW2 or SWTOR to WoW or DAoC.

That may be the difference between us. Once again, ARR couldn't have been resolved without the WoL.

Same for Heavensward, same for Stormblood, same for Shadowbringers and Endwalker. It doesn't mean the WoL do everything, it doesn't mean the focus is always on the WoL but the WoL matter.
Dawntrail could have been exactly the same with any elite adventurer replacing the WoL and the WoL had no reason to take Wuk Lamat side. The WoL is narratively just a bodyguard (or a cheerleader) and technically a cameraman.

And to be clear, agency doesn't mean "always a stronger baddies", even without making the WoL weaker, there is many way to render the WoL powerless or near powerless, mainly because the WoL isn't Zenos and isn't some kind of dictator that would just murder everyone on sight. Politics and facing army always was the WoL weakness, who excel in 1v1 (or 8v1).