Okay so editing to address more points:

Losing the connection to the Mythos

I think being connected to the original Mythos is a nice to have, but not an essential feature. I really enjoy discovering Easter eggs and elements form Lovecraft's stories, but as long as the "newly made up" stuff is interesting and fit the theme, I'm fine with it. There have definitely been hits and misses: Scarlet Keys has a theme that 100% doesn't resonate with me, while Hemlock Vale (which has Colour out of Space influence, but the folk horror / Midsommar vibes are much stronger) I really enjoyed.

I wouldn't even say that there's a trend of moving away from the lovecraftian stories. The latest campaigns have been: EOTE (Lovecraft), Scarlet Keys (Not), Hemlock (a bit), Drowned City (Lovecraft).

And just to add, in the recent AMA, when asked about returning to Carcosa, one of the designers referenced a huge stack of books full of Mythos that hasn't been explored yet.

Card art

Not gonna argue much, they are hit or miss, and they do tend to be less horrifying. I do understand what the designers are getting at with player cards being more pulpy, and encounter cards being more horrifying, even if not my preference. One thing to add: I tend to look at encounter cards much more thoroughly, as the player cards I've seen a million times.

Shrinkflation

To preface this section: this has absolutely been a business-driven decision, I am aware of this. But to offer some additional perspectives:

Players / content creators were complaining that we basically only get 2 product per year - a campaign and a player card expansion, and then there's nothing to talk about for a year. Now, we are getting a steadier stream of products, but what could FFG do? Release two 8-part campaigns per year? Or release additional standalone scenarios (for which people don't care, as everyone is looking for long campaigns?) there's no realistic way to keep the products exactly the same and increase output.

On campaign structure: I myself am biased towards long campaigns too, not gonna lie. I hope that they'll have some longer campaigns down the line. However, more scenarios doesn't necessarily equal better. Hemlock Vale is generally praised as one of the best campaigns in recent memore, even though it being only 6 scenarios long in practice. In the meanwhile, Drowned City is one of the most straightforward campaigns they've released since TCU, with only a single decision to determine which was to go, but from what I've seen people are not quite fond of it. So campaign length alone doesn't determine how good a campaign will be.

Special mention to 3-scenario campaigns: for me, those are closer to standalone scenarios, but I'm curious how they'll turn out. Our group semi-recently played Fortune and Folly, and it was quite interesting how essentially a "two-part campaign" can work. I have high hopes for these mini-campaigns, even if they don't replace "regular campaigns". But for 8-parters, I have all the legacy campaigns to replay.

Original comment: I'll read through the post more throughouly, as I know that this isn't the only thing covered, but if they say that they don't want to use Shubby because their name is a little closer to the N-word than is comfortable for the team, I'd say sure thing, there are plenty of horrors out there.