The idea that Avaloren doesn't have a hook is bonkers.
We literally have in game confirmation from titan keeper perspective on failed invasions from Odins behalf.
A realm guarded by storms with heretic titan keepers that odin wants to kill is absolutely a hook. Especially if it's been foreshadowed. Whether it's an expansion or not, this is a hook.
The entire arguments I'm seeing are just preference bias. I'm shocked people have been so shook by those 4 images. Mentals have been broken and it's quite funny to watch.
"Torturing someone is not an evil thing to do if it is done for good reasons" by Varodoc
"You sit in OG/SW waiting on a Mythic+ queue" by Altmer <- Oh, the pearls in this forum...
"They sort of did this Dragonriding, which ushered in the Dracthyr race." by Teriz <- the BS some people reach for their narratives...
Avaloren has barely been canon for a year. Your average player doesn't even know it exists, only the terminally online turbonerds like us know what's going on.
For the vast majority of the player base, there's no hook.
Starting to set up Avaloren as a potential future location is all fine and good, but it needs more build-up than this. What we have is basically nothing.

The hints are in a book most players probably doesn't even know exists. It's not even in an obvious location. It's in the one dungeon not on the Dragon Isles proper, and there is no reason to go there outside M+, during which none have time for reading fluff text, if its even there.
Also the main issue with the four screenshots is not that it's on Avaloren. It's that they are all boring, and made seemingly from 90% reused assets. Even to the point they look like existing zones.
And this is presumably shown during the features trailer. The part that is supposed to really sell players on the zones being exciting to go to. So why are they so boring to look at, and not crammed with as many fantastic shots as possible.
Why do they seem like old zones deliberately shot to have as few defining features as possible, and not like entirely new and novel zones, shot to look as new as possible?
The world revamp dream will never die!

Red Shirt Guy mentioning some new locations from the new book:
Originally Posted by https://twitter.com/TheRedShirtGuy/status/1719101049674346898
O Metzen, bless this holy Page 2222 with a delicious leak
Its strange because there was next to 0 buildup for the dragon isles. The only actual Ingame hint was from an expansion prior to 9.0, an island expedition quest that only stated that Wrathion was looking for it.
Other than the terminally online turbo nerds, did the average player know about the dragon isles? I'd argue not.
The world revamp dream will never die!
Im waiting for the "groundbreaking" evidence thats supposed to prove the images wrong
"Torturing someone is not an evil thing to do if it is done for good reasons" by Varodoc
"You sit in OG/SW waiting on a Mythic+ queue" by Altmer <- Oh, the pearls in this forum...
"They sort of did this Dragonriding, which ushered in the Dracthyr race." by Teriz <- the BS some people reach for their narratives...