To be honest the last patch (the Nzoth raid) made me quit until SL
I always loved Old God theme, but they didnt make it great. Maybe my expectation were too high, but still I expected more than two zones lazy revamp, pure random system with gear and unfriendly amount of daily quests. Warfronts are ultraboring, and... Islands. Islands was the feature I loved the most in BFA, but then they decided to make it less mystical (in loot terms) and turned it to boring chore, but I remember when we started to dig up for some exploration, different rares killing, trying to gather only one type of mobs to get any info about loot. That was so exciting, and they got rid of it... But well I dont think anybody else loved it the way I did
As for Shadowlands, I really liked it in the beginning. But then... 9.0.5 happened and I believe that was the point where I didn't really understand how could they make a patch that should have been a part of the game in the very beginning? They have so much experience. Patch stories, mistakes and stuff that already happened since TBC...
Then 9.1. Okay, they've shown it on Blizzcon and there I understood. They had almost nothing to show us except the trailer which had... Nothing :| And just went offline for some time.
But I'm agree with you on part where things must start with somewhere, Legion timewalking with m+ made me curious, really. And... Dunno nothing else for now. I'm not really big fan of more customisations but happy for people who wants it. Letting people change covenants without penalty make me wonder why would they even lock people with the choice in the first place? So all that "RPG Choice Philosophy" works for 3 patches only? If rumours about Mage Tower returning are real, then its a good chance for some people to have fun with some challenge. They even letting us start farming islands again!
But again, all my curiosity goes for... Old stuff. I'm not trying to say "omg give me more new content right now", I just want them to make a game where you consider all ups and downs, and dont make patches where you literally patch things that should have been from the start (badges + item upgrades) because atleast 9.0.5 was either to show that they didnt really polish SL that well, or just artificially prolonged time between patches.
Optimistic Am I or pessimistic?
Optimistic for sure, I just hope that people who work there are in love with the game, their work environment is well for them, and they hold for us in the future more good stuff. But that's me, hehe.