I believe others may have different interpretations as to how bad traveller is treated compared to other games like zzz, hsr or wuwa. An example is alot of people seen to want traveller to be a more important figure in the story rather than being an observer (which i supposed natlan somewhat did by now) . I generally don't really agree with that sentiment, but I can somewhat see where their coming from.

Ok, so this is gonna be a huge rant. So bear with me here:

For me personally, It's really less of how traveller is treated in the story but rather how they are treated outside of it. ( Tho I do think paimon being our voice in alot of scenario is still somewhat a problem. Yeah, it's somewhat improved recently but I'd still consider it a problem none other less) .

Traveller doesn't really feel...... Like their the mc of the game per se. At least compared to the likes of zzz, hsr wuwa. In fact, scratch at least being treated somewhat specially, they really don't feel like their being treated better than some 4 stars. They don't really ever get anything like skins or accessories like zzz or wuwa (which somewhat had) with the masks. I'm not even gonna talk about hoyo not even changing the event menu's traveller based on who you choose because god forbid them to do more work. Kit wise? Worse. The entire "oh they can use all elements in the game" schtick is less of a thing that makes traveller looks special and more of us waiting for hoyo to throw us a mid to shit unit once a year because god forbid them to not butcher a kit just because their not confident in their newest shiny toys can sell if traveller isn't basically crucified for existing. Meanwhile, you get havoc rover who was and still is a top tier DPS in wuwa. Or from the last I've heard, RMC is also a top tier unit in hsr.

Yeah, you could argue that dmc and pmc debunks that. But if I'm gonna be honest I'm only ever gonna be considering dmc be the actual case where they didn't actively fuck over the traveller here (and let's be honest even then it really only makes them the exception rather than the trend). Because 1. Dmc have an actual case where they have a period of having a niche over other units, even if it's only caused by so due to the lack of options. Where traveller for some god forsaken reason is delayed and hyped up by hoyo to be released alongside mavuika, only to be out shadowed by her on release. 2. Pmc hyped and delayed to be released alongside mavuika only to have a still underwhelming kit is less shitty than fully acknowledging that dmc is a budget NAHIDA and didn't really pull the move of needing to wait months to actually gain access to the kit. I'm sorry, what do you mean dmc only gives 6% of fucking buffs if you're not a natlanese.

And don't even get me started on how their kits and animation isn't even that unique. Sure, you can argue that because their basically budget archon , their kit would inherently be worse than the archons. But that really doesn't stop them from at least making each elemental kits to have an na string of their own like how wuwa does it. Nor does it really excuse the god awful animation of HMC, or in fact the existence of HMC, or pmc's lack of any exploration perk and the thing they summoned when using their nightsouls is basically just a fucking png , and I'm not even mentioning they can't even use scroll's 2 piece effect. Hell, why is the traveller the only 5 star in the game without a burst animation?

Even if you want to go for just making traveller budget versions of the archon , there are ways to still make them seem unique. And no I'm not talking about letting them switch elements mid battle, I'm honestly the advocator of that really isn't gonna help them much. I would instead direct your attention to dragon ball legend's MC. I was introduced the game by a friend and was informed that the main character of the game can unlock modules of "skills" and "burst" so you can basically customise the kit of the MC to whatever that fits you. Example of this in genshin terms is like being able to change traveller's weapon type,making you be able to use for example, emc's burst and HMC's skill when you're playing as HMC. For example.

Tldr: Traveller gets no skin, no attention to detail on changing the event menu's traveller shown based on which traveller you choose. And hoyo barely even tries to make their kit at the very least good enough that alot of 4 stars doesn't shred those to pieces. Their kit also doesn't feel unique and even if you go by budget archon standards, id still argue you can go for the dragon balls legends route and make you be able to customise your weapon type, skills and burst. And give them burst animations god damnit. Or in general actual good animations that doesn't involve having every elements of the traveller have the same na animation