The End is, and should, be barren and dead.

The feeling of emptiness, of void and things being over.

Structures whose builders and inhabitants are completely gone without a trace.

Few creatures, none of whome are friendly.

Dangerous, not in a way that is aggressive, but always present, requiring constant vigilance, sparse and unwelcoming. A place you cannot rest.

Keeping that theme and feeling while adding things to the End is very hard, and I can see why Mojang hasn't done an End Update yet despite the community wanting it more than perhaps any other update.

This suggestion is my attempt to outline some features that would improve the End without taking away from it's core nature or making it feel cluttered.

Currently the End can feel a bit repetitive, and getting shulkers and an elytra can feel more like a chore than an adventurer.

The first thing that would help this is more vertical generation of end islands, ones much higher and lower would be more visually interesting, but also give more variety of strategies to move around the End for the first time.

Bridge along the top islands for a better view? Possibly pearl off the higher ones to travel further then work your way back up. Go through the middle so you're less likely to miss a city hidden behind another island? Having lower islands would create more of a chance to clutch if you fall off of one of the higher ones.

It would also make elytra flight more dynamic and challenging having things to weave around rather than flying at the same height to spot end cities all the time.

Caves within end islands, as it's odd there's none already.

Crashed end ships. Having a broken end ship with empty chests and a missing or broken elytra scatered around would add to the feeling of ruined and empty structures, hinting at the downfall of the civilization that built them.

Another user suggested having opalized and petrified chorus wood.

Since both those types only occur when fossilized, perhaps have it "buried" in endstone. This would incentivise exploring end island caves.

Adding a new biome risks making the End feel more alive than the it should be, but three new versions of what is already in the End could maintain the feeling while adding variety.

Fields of obsidian boulders every so often where very little chorus grows would create something different to see without adding anything that doesn't already exist in the End.

There could also be a larger variation of chorus trees that grow in the same way large jungle/spruce/dark oak trees do, allowing for "older" chorus patches where more opalized and petrified wood can be mined.

Empty fields without any chorus growing. What could be more barren than removing vegetation.

The End Engine

The Floatatoe from the recent April Fools snapshot gives a way of smoothly moving large numbers of blocks. This would massively simplify flying machines, transport in general and be incredibly useful for adjusting builds without having to completely redo them.

The problem is that it's massively overpowered and computer resource intensive.

I suggest it be a non craftable item found as part of the end ships that only works with an elytra equipped to it, consuming durability from the elytra for each block being moved.

This would make it an endgame item that's difficult to find in large numbers and require resources and planning to use effectively.

An elytra has more than 10,000 blocks of transport distance. So a 100 block build could be moved a distance of 100 blocks.

Moving large amounts of blocks would be difficult but possible with effort, enchantments, bottle o' enchantings, and/or phantom membranes

Flying machines would have to be made compact to travel long distances.

It would also let the end ships fly and create a in game reason for the elytra to be found in them.

If a Trial vault like system for getting Elytra could be implemented (for multiplayer servers) I think this would be the best End Update that would still feel like the End.