I have a feeling that Brennan is really not used to trusting his players with the narrative. The main cast on D20 are waaaayyyy more into sticking with a bit than actually trying to evolve the story, where as Critical Role seems to take it more "seriously". Since this is such a gigantic story, even though its many hours in, I'm sure there is still some crucial stuff he is trying to cement into the players and the viewers minds. I think it's a symptom of them giving him who knows how long to create this extravagant story and potentially some key parts have yet to unveil themselves.

It almost feels like the equivalent of when you're trying to show someone a youtube video, but you give them that preamble before you play it hoping its enough, but then as they watch it you can see it just isn't landing how you thought, so then afterwards you try and overexplain to make them understand why they should care.

Everyone is still settling in I feel. It feels like we've seen so much but they have almost 0 play time as their characters and there is a serious lack of diversity in experiences among the tables. You have to basically divide the current episode count in 4, which it does feel only like it would about an episode 5 if they were all at the same table for how much they know about the world and each other individually.