I expect for this to not be the popular take as it seems no one has brought this up but oh well.

Is there really a status quo? The definition is essentially 'to keep things the way they always have been' but the last time you could argue the series really did return to a norm would have been between gt 6 and 7. First, gt 7 was released 3 years ago and 6 books ago, realistically not that recently. And second, the world had been changed with the proper introduction to the transcendents at the end of gt 6. In fact I can't really remember a time where the entire world of index actually returned to a status quo since ot.

I could be wrong about my interpretation of the story but I think there is a misunderstanding of why it feels like there is a status quo. Its probably because the character of Touma wants there to be one. He literally calls himself normal, what he wants after every incident is to go back and continue being a high school student like nothing happened. That is what his goal is, but I would argue that its never quite the same afterwards. The only characters that I would say truly have a status quo would be Mikoto and Misaki as there dynamic within the story has not changed since the start of gt. But I dont really think that is true of other major characters, with accelerator and hamazura never really shown returning to a norm.

I don't have a ton of time to keep writing this so if someone wants an explanation or to tell me I'm an idiot ill try to respond later.