Gnomes are certainly one of the more neglected races in WoW, but I do think they have a great potential to be an interesting race beyond the comic relief that so often gets assigned to them. Like most races, I think they could benefit greatly from an expansion of their history, society, and tactics to help better flesh out the race.
As for their appearance in BFA, while I liked several aspects of it, I dislike that Mekkatorque became a king. As the High Tinker role was always democratically elected, though more by way of meritocracy than popularity. (The High Tinker was the one voted to be the best Tinker) In this way, him becoming a King feels a step backwards for Gnomes as a whole, but that is because I’m heavily biased toward Democracies being a better form of government than Monarchies. If anything I’d like to see pushback here from gnomes in general, who would prefer not to be ruled over by a King, but continue their more Democratic processes.
In a similar vein, I’d like Gnomes and Mechagnomes to work closely together, but still have distinct schools of thought when approaching society and engineering, as by contrasting the differences, one is better able to point out the features of each society. Not that these differences lead to violence, but that they lead to a division in approach. As an example, I do not believe the Gnomes ever lacked the ability to do mechanization that the Mechagnomes can do, only that they lacked the desire to do so. Mechagnomes have, on regular occasion, replaced perfectly functional limbs with mechanized ones and I think this should be a hard division between the two societies. I don’t think the gnomes would have issue replacing missing or irreparably damaged limbs with mechanized ones, but the Mechagnomes are still a step beyond that. Contrasting the two races would help the gnomes out more, as I feel given how much time in the narrative they’ve existed, they’ve not gotten fleshed out nearly as much.
For their people as a whole, I’d love if they were able to reclaim Gnomergan, or at least substantial parts of it. The Gnomes have been a people without a home for too long, with only 2 real villages to call their own. (Basically putting them on par with the Stonemaul Ogres, or the Horde Aligned Hozen in terms of how many villages they have) Once reclaimed, the areas of the city, and how they begin to use them (such as the absurdly huge interior hangar they have) would be useful in plots going forward.
In the same vein, the Gnomes have shown an affinity for aircraft for some time, and much of the real world limitation of such craft (especially for military use) is the limitation on air bases to resupply and refuel. In that regards, the Gnomes basically only have one from Ironforge, and one in Northrend. So adding a few more airstrips around the world would help give the gnomes more bases, if only purely military ones.
My final point is that I’d also give more explanation and depth to Gnomish vs Goblin design of technology. As both have their strong and weak points. By further emphasizing / explaining both one could better flesh out the race’s own design approaches. Showcasing their strengths, as well as their weaknesses.
