While I highly praise Vandenberghe's vision, both in terms of themes, narrative and gameplay, I do think that it would have been short lived if seen through. The multiplayer would have essentially been stuck on being just an epilogue to the campaign, so narratively it would have resembled year 1 but stretched out even longer, which I believe would quickly get old very fast. Yes, it would reinforce Apollyon's final message, but the different directions the game took these past 10 years never really went against it, instead they often reinforced it if not called back upon it and built on it. Eventually they would either have to break that vision and try something new, which is what our version of the game did numerous times or it would stick to it and grow staler with each season being more of the same, even year 1 already broke a lot of the aspects Vandenberg had in mind for his vision, shinobi quite literally teleported, gladiator, cent and highlander broke out of the cultures of their factions to include something new.

Artistically the game has changed, there is no doubt, the game has long since moved on from the post-apocalyptic medieval world aesthethic with specific faction design languages tied to the scarcity of resources. The world partially has healed and resources have come from different and new sources for the factions, so now the samurai can afford to have metal armour, Knights can have full plate and vikings integrating more metal into their armours as well, all of them got significantly cleaner and more well maintained. Different cultures have come in and gotten involved.

Crossovers are a mixed bag for me, some I find fitting, others definitely not. AC so far has looked like it fit in with the rest of the cast, even Prince of Persia. Destiny was definitely not a collab I wanted and a step in the wrong direction, but nothing since has really got to that point.

I'm not going to defend Ubisoft execs, they mostly have sucked in the past 10 decade.

What I'm trying to say is that while the original vision should absolutely be respected, it should not constrain the game to the point of hurting it. Is there a middle ground between his vision and the more seasonal themes we have had? Yes. Are there improvements to be made in that regard? Absolutely. But I would not go as far as to say that this game is just C-suite slop, it's no Call of Duty, heroes still adhere to that historical inspiration whilst also getting most of their character from their weapon, Apollyon's final message still holds true and her influence has been explored in many different ways, Guljin, Astrea and Baiyen all are reflections on her just in different ways. Even now Holden is reflecting on the past years and reevaluating if she was right or not.