Perhaps part of the story going soft is in reaction to what was asked for.
“We don’t want cosmic war anymore…please give us a story closer to home / local threats”
We got it in spades with this expansion.
I think the stakes can be raised here…I don’t think many of the major characters ended up mortally wounded…granted Alexstrasza took a pretty rough shoulder check…but she was walking it off fairly quick in the aftermath. Nothing that made me feel like…let me go grab my sword quick and do something about this…need to go save them NOW.
For TWW…I can imagine…they are going to set things up…world build…show the new leaders find their footing as newly in charge…Xalatah go catch some more poke old god essences…and Iridikron as somewhere for the last raid.
Midnight / TLL can maybe be interesting…but TWW has a lot of ground to cover between now, the harbinger quest line to possibly create any type of tension and setup…and frankly I don’t think they have created enough time and space to do so.