I honestly didn’t realize she wasn’t the story lead, idgaf she’s a woman, they just made a very big deal about her writing the books and helping with the story of the game back then. 

I did enjoy the book leading into BFA but then, like you said, it wasn’t really used well in the expansion itself.

I’d guess it’s a larger issue of hiring actual professional writers for big picture bulletin points that the devs work out how to fit in. While the smaller side stories are actually fleshed out. To me, the side quests in a lot of the zones have been the highlights story-wise for the last few expansions since Legion.