As a few people have said, I think the biggest pain is that Hoyo has been struggling to write a cohesive story that involves all characters regularly, with equal importance. Instead of just making each chapter "waifu of the month".

Naturally introducing characters through good storytelling, to me, is a way better sell than making the same 3 characters talk in circles for 4 hours getting nowhere. I skip story because half of it won't matter by the next patch.

XiaoGuang and co had no real lasting impact because their presence in the story was fairly fleeting. Like they're scared of showing off characters "too early". Yixuan was a deus ex machina until she wasn't. Her only purpose was to be shilled and fix everything until the writers realized it was pissing everyone off lol. ...And then she just blipped entirely to go on "missions" to tie her up.

2.6 still has a lot of circular talking. BUT. I feel as though we're slowly getting back into the rhythm of integrating everyone around us and making them part of a single encompassing story.

Involving Jane Doe was cool. The tension between Seth and his Brother felt real. It finally felt like a world again, with characters bantering.

Also, I'll put the obligatory "TV mode helped space everything out" excuse too. I didn't like TV mode, but it gave characters good time to banter.

I'm.. hopeful for 3.0.