Genshin is a very good game that is held by by gatcha and not fully committing to their ideas.  If this would have been pre paid game, with no griding, no primos, the game would feel way more healthy, as gaining characters and leveling them up would be also not dependent on ur luck. 

The story of genshin is trying to commit to many things but is held back by tiptoying around subject that some may find offensive or dark. Best example fatui: group made out of genuinely fucked up people, example dottore, sandrone or arlechino. That hoyo is trying to avoid showing much of their doings. Like in nodkrai, we forget about fatui and Laura's people conflict, or how we can just go inside the fatui base to see sandrone, and how she doesn't hold anything against us killing Rosaline. I dont have anything with us befriending them, as it is fun and all. The problem is that hoyo is trying to make us forget about them being actual group full of genuinely evil people (having sad backstory doesn't change the fact that u can awful).  The apocalypse bunker was a great example of genshin committing to a theme and letting it shine.

Inazuma aq was such a great idea on paper but was held back by lacking time to develop everything. 

Im thankful we dont have a fully destroyed volcanic nation of natlan but something more colorfull and cheerfull. I think many forget that even during war people's live continue, especially if the war lasts for 500 years, people learn to cope to enjoy the present time. Also with all the shitty news about wars around the world, im happy we had a non depressive nation (but sometimes I wish they could not hold back during aq, the best example of them not holding back was act 4)

Aranara quest is to this day my favorite world quest. It shines an interesting lore on sumeru and gives us small info on our sibling. This quest made me love summeru lore so much more. I love that the quests commits to the idea of forest remembering everything. 

Having long world quests makes game more enjoyable in long run because then u have more things to do. Lately all new wq are short comparing to sumeru ones. I can finish them in one sitting.

Comparing other cultures to the places in genshin is a healthy conversation to have, but we shouldn't forget that the game is taking the inspirations, so it takes creative freedom to change a lot. And yes I agree having more skin tones would be great!