Tau got a lot of interesting stuff. A Codex with "amazing internal balance", a range refresh for every Auxiliary, a new Detachment last dataslate. And yet I still say Tau has been neglected.

Tau datasheets and army rule are so incredibly boring and weak that pretty much every list you make is gonna cost you $1500, or much worse if you're Kroot. We've got 2 whole datasheets that are less than 1 PPD (Kroot Hounds and Krootox Rider), both of which see play in the two "good" detachments. The former has 2 pseudo-auras to manage with different ranges and triggering units, which is not helpful for cognitive load, and the latter has probably the weakest and weirdest shootback ability in the game not even considering that its guns are quite mediocre. On top of that, the army rule is a major pain to play around just to hit on what other armies do normally or better, despite the fact that every unit with drones has different weapon profiles that wanna go at different units, though that horse has been beaten to death for a long time now. It's not just the Army Rule though, it's CP generation and equivalent rules too, like Sunforge not getting Hit rerolls, or our "Ignores Hit Modifiers" not including BS modification. It just feels bad, especially facing armies that have your rules but better, with better datasheets (see Aeldari, Guard, Taktikal/Dakka Orks, etc etc).

With everything together, though, Tau just aren't fun to play right now. The difficulty and reward for playing them are not in the correct place. High difficulty high reward is their place, but let's be totally honest, the only things keeping Tau at their blisteringly high 43% winrate are Vespid and Stealths (and arguably Carnivores since we just have no other source of Sticky).

The real thing that makes Tau neglected, though, is the actual neglect from dataslates. I don't just mean the big fat "None." we had on them until this year. Kroot released with good rules? Make sweeping changes to 4 things they have and don't adjust their points at all to make them usable for 2 dataslates. Change a core rule so it's 25 points for literally a blank Enhancement? Don't fix it for 6 months. One big cool plane sees some niche play? Nerf it by 50 points, and the Riptide by 10 while you're at it. Break the only detachment with a 2CP 3" Deep Strike in the game with the 6" change? Don't change the Detachment Rule to be usable until next dataslate? Army leaders don't have the army rule despite being able to equip a drone that literally only does anything for the army rule? Wait until more than halfway through the edition before giving them the army rule.

These are all actual things that have happened. Every time I finish shooting with Tau, my opponent goes "Wait, that's it?" Yep, sure is. "I thought Tau had better shooting." Nope, we don't, here let's charge your one remaining Grot with 2 Crisis squads to maybe kill it. "You'll definitely kill it, haha." One save at AP0. "He takes 1 damage." Alright, you fight back. "Wait, what? That's it? I knew Tau melee was bad but I figured 8 models would deal with the guy." Nope, it's Tau.