Exactly, I pointed out to him that he conveniently left out the heart of the city which is marble and pre-sundering style - but it seems to be it is horde elf fans that have the hardest time accepting the night elves arcane side, pre-sundering side or Highborne, as well ass building anything like Suramar or Zin'Azshari - almost as if they are trying to make it seem like it's not night elven
They use the long vigil wrongly to make that point (ignoring it's over,) and the arcane ban wrongly too (as if to say night elves can't or never will use the arcane). I can only conclude they find the pre-sundering side of the night elves attractive (clearly Suramar is nice) and because it is horde don't want the actual kaldorei of whom it is a part off to have any of it - they want the entire night elf arcane legacy to be exclusively horde, jump over tot he horde like the High elves were taken over.
I find this very disturbing, after greatly analysing and exploring the night elves, and coming to like both their eras and the uniqueness son what their arcane/nature duality is (an d it's one of the lore's best and most unique renditions of classical fantasy races) I've spent enough time writing about it to show them how very integrated these parts of the night elves are to the forest/Elune culture and what it would mean.
A new city could very well have both aspects to it, but is unlikely. I can understand why Darnassus had wood homes in it from a lore point of view - the new city is built, without major arcane magical help, not enough resources to do everything in marble, so wood is used. I can also see lorewise why druids would prefer not to do this to trees.
The way they wrote druids and Malfurion for wow, they do minimal co-opting of trees for homes or features, they'd rather save a tree than convert it into a house, they'd rather live under trees and in caves than disturb them for homes especially as they consider them living organisms too, and sentient, only asking them to sacrifice and give of themselves in time of great peril for a greater cause - and that's not the comfort or aesthetic of a race. They also prefer simplicity on their person and the thing s they build choosing instead to mould the beauty of nature according to Azeroths's dream, which they find more fascinating than anything else.
So I don't think druids would want to use wood nor would they be the architects of a new city. I think they'd want the Highborne to use arcane magic to from new homes for a population centre out of other materials that can't get up and walk or think or are alive..I think they would help the Highborne weave nature and life into them, but the design would be night elven pre-sundering in a new city. The reason Darnassus was not is because it's an earlier model and the night elves' first attempt at building a city in 10k years, it's 20 years since, for a lot of techniques to be honed in, new night elven groups like the Highborne have returned, bringing a lot of expertise etc.
Finally, I find the pre-sundering architecture stunning and beautiful, why wouldn't I want that for a night elf city? Zin'Azshari but with gardens and flowers galore, nature alive in the city, parks amid the beautiful elegant structures?
Druids may care only for the beauty of nature, but they're about a third of the night elves, other night elves, like priests, Highborne, craftsmen and tradesmen care for beauty too, and love nature as they do, they can't craft/grow nature, so their beauty comes out in their workmanship, in the ornate temples, the buildings, their clothes and dresses . The druid ones don't care for such things, the closer to nature they are the better, because they find the beauty in a flower more elegant than the garb of the finest tailors, but that's the druid, that's certainly not the priest or the tailor or the Highborne. Nor does loving beautiful buildings, and craft work somehow mean you don't love nature - you do, you just have other loves and other skills.
there is a gross failure to understand night elves beyond druidism, but that's because these horde fans are horde fans, and don't care that much - they chose the horde elves because they liked that better and felt it superior. All they saw of night elves were forests and ruins, but blood elves came with a great city and powerful magic and they switched in an instance. They didn't realise that night elves had even greater a civilization and wielded even greater magics, and that it was only preventing the legion's return that had stopped this, nothing else, not hate or phobia or anything like that - so WC3's end automatically implied that the night elves' great works would return. Darnassus was first fruits, and we saw a full version of what they could do in Suramar, the Zin'Azshari, we had Highborne return, no longer addicted or corrupt, having learnt a vital lesson and now working alongside the night elves.
they gave up the night elves not understanding them, and now they work hard to oppose any development of the arcane side of the night elves. They accuse my voice revealing tis aspect as advocating for night elves to become like blood elves - I respond, it is blood elves that are like this side of night elves, and no, I am advocating for all the sides of the night elves to be shown, a night elf civilization city is not mutually exclusive with nature love, and a city doesn't mean night elves don't have a strong druidic core and forest cultures. Forest livelihoods are for forest, things are and always will be different in a city built by a race that has done this sort of thing to great levels.
There lore hasn't set them up to be arcane hating, civilization hating elves at all, but has put them in a position that they are able to have both forest and city, arcane nature, in harmony and balance, without abuse in a way that they didn't have at the height of either of the past 2 eras. Night elves are a much bigger race than blood elves, there is enough room for both arcane and nature, city civilizations and forest ones, side by side, and areas where t hey mix, and where they are segregated. This I their purpose of the original race.
I go into a much deeper dive here. In the topic:
Night Elves, Magic & the Arcane - Common Misconceptions & Things You Didn't Consider
I know you've been there, but anyone else reading this here, this topic really deep dives this aspect of the night elves - but it is aimed at showing there is a balance, and that both arcane and nature are core parts of the night elves - it doesn't try to make night elves only about the arcane at all, but it is very insistent on the relevance and core part of the Night elves, that the arcane, their pre-sundering history, civilization etc all are to them - and this is because some people who respond there felt that this was not part of the night elves anymore, that it was there only for the Blood elves (their elves) and it has nothing to do with current night elves - I prove and show throughout the topic how this is actually a misconception and not what the night elf lore shows about the night elf race. The arguments and discussion focus more on those aspects because these are the ones the majority horde fans responding there have trouble with (and some 1 alliance fan named Tuor). Much of this is because blizzard actually showed much more of the forest side of the night elves with the night elf model, and wrote a lot more about the arcane side of the night elves as in wow as they developed, night elves were largely neglected in favour of the horde and horde races, but they continued the story about them through a stunning total of 6 novels (only humans and orcs come close to those numbers)
Highborne and arcane are not evils in to the night elves. One are people who misled the people, but not all, many have come round. The other is the powerful force that forged the night elves and has done much good, it's their misuse of it that drew the Legion, the fault of the past lies with their attitude and the legion, not actually with the arcane or being great wielders of it. Azshara towards the end of her reign twisted and misused everything she touched. Night elves always used nature, in the height of the re-sundering era, although they commanded ancients to do it, while most of them wielded the arcane, since nature practice on them had waned, still we see loads of ancient trees in Dire Maul, a Highborne city - like how arcane amgic was abused by the Queen in her addiction, so to was nature magic - not understanding you don't force ancients to do things, you ask, you don't rip nature in you harmonise in. The mistake people then make by not understanding is thinking the new post sundering night elves therefore hated arcane, but this sin't true, they hated abuse of arcane magic, and Highborne abuse of well everything.. power, magic, nature, you name it. This was the bad attitude that night elves in the post sundering era have overcome.
but wielding arcane and nature has always been a core, and the new nations accept it, what they aim not to do is abuse it like before.