You raise some good points. I like the Nelfs. I have several. Honestly, as the story is being written now, I don’t know why anyone would roll one now. Unless you happen to like playing some one backed into a corner and doesn’t seem to have any future glory to look forward to and I do feel like their revenge was a bit lacking. Maybe that changes in Shadowlands.
In SWTOR I played villains and blew up planets, killed people for looking at me wrong or talking back to me, gassed an entire population. All things considered atrocities by civilized standards. But I can see why the Horde and Forsaken players in particular are angry at being used and being pawns.
Sylvanas did some really horrible things and yeah, does seem past the point of no return in any kind of redemption arc. I have been “angry” at her since Varian Wrynn died. But I do think BfA went too far to the point where you can’t really fix it. Good writing might be able to. But if good writing was a thing, I am not sure we would even have came down this road.
My OP was more of a lament. The true Lament of the Highborne, if you will because she was in her day such a good character and cool character. I realize that this likely can’t be fixed or undone. Not even sure that Blizzard wants it to be done. I just don’t get the why because in her day she was such a great character and imo the story that got us to this point wasn’t great storytelling. Yes mileage varies, but that’s my opinion. I really do want her to remain an active part of the lore in a positive way, but as many have pointed out more eloquently than I, there doesn’t seem to be a way to do that without ruining more of the story.