Much has already been said… quite understandably so… Not sure if I’ve got what it takes to review all that right now, sorry, so I suppose I’ll just write down some of my initial thoughts about the actual patch notes and changes themselves.
no dominant power outliers or play patterns demanding nerfs
Yeah, turn 5 big Zilliax, followed by turn 6 Shaladrassil or something like that in every second game is fine. 
Got it.
We’ve also continued to hear suggestions to buff nearly every new Quest so they become competitive archetypes. However, as we’ve shared before, too many competitive Quests in the long term can lead to a metagame that isn’t fun or healthy.
Alright, come to think of it, I suppose I’ll comment on this bit, although it verges on expounding the obvious.
Are you saying that you wanna essentially print or maintain some cards, knowing well that they don’t work, that is, aren’t playable or competitive? What kind of… backward reasoning is this?
Card Changes
Mostly inconsequential (I think one ‘Old Guardian’ once elaborated quite well how minor adjustments to nonfunctional cards generally don’t make those cards or archetypes suddenly functional), however, the card already used sometimes in some variations of the biggest ‘power outlier’, namely Mirrex, the Crystalline, received a buff.
Are you people… normally adjusted?
We’ve seen a lot of feedback about the strong neutral package of Fyrakk, Elise, Naralex, and Ysera, and we’ll be keeping a close eye on them moving forward.
(Highlighted by me, the rest provided for the context, speaking of which: yeah, you ever considered actually addressing those instead?)
Not this thing again… What’s the point of yet another of such emtpy promises, though? Relying on short memory and attention spans of your particular target audience, so that they just forget it all eventually and move on until your next bit of hype, which’ll be the talk of the ‘town’ by then? Or is it yet another invitation to just keep waiting (in vain, of course) for the situation to improve in the next expansion, year, decade, millenium? Ugh, just stop feeding your players false hopes, wouldn’t you? Alas, seemingly, you wouldn’t (a realist speaking here).
More broadly, we believe future expansions are a better place to bring community feedback to life than trying to overhaul the current set through balance patches. We fell short of our goal of introducing enough new competitive options this expansion. As we look ahead to the next expansion and beyond, we’re keeping your response to this set in mind and are using it to help shape the future of Hearthstone.
In short, you failed, we got it. But what is it with those promises, as said above, again?
Dev Comment: We’ve seen players tapping into the potential of Possessed Animancer, and we’re making it more efficient to use. Alongside that, we’re also improving one of its favorite partners, Asphyxiodon. We wouldn’t be giga sore if you tried using it with another Beast, either.
Dev Comment: Upgrading Ankylodon gives Hunter a powerful Discover option through effects like Detailed Notes, while also making it a solid Beast for Quest Hunter and other Hunter decks.
Dev Comment: We’ve found that players already complete the Shaman Quest fairly quickly, but we still wanted to give Tortotem a small boost. Lowering its cost helps it contribute to Quest completion while also enabling earlier minion generation to fuel the payoff once the Quest is complete.
My reaction to more or less all of this, but the last-mentioned bit in particular, was like this: what? Are you talking about the same game that I (don’t wanna speak for ‘everyone’) have been playing? Someone seems completely… disconnected from the current reality of HS, and I seriously doubt it’s the players. 