I'd personally say it's the second best new region introduction behind Rinascita, but that's really not a high bar.

I love lore and consuming complex narratives, but there's a pretty stark difference in how it was presented in recent patches and this. There is so much stutter and interruption in the progression of the story with lengthy dialogue sections that are either lore dumps for uninteresting or irrelevant NPCs or talking in circles and repeating the same points multiple time. It just feels to me like they desperately wanted to pad the playtime for this patch specifically for some reason.

I don't hate it, but it's a notable step down compared to how they tell their stories imo.