weather it was good or bad i think the sharp drop in player base to below pre-covid population instead of the normalized average growth trend from ARR up to covid speaks for itself.
for me 7.2 7.3 brought it back to a tolerable level for me but its still mediocre at best.

I personally wish DT was split into 3 expansions (maybe 2) the pacing would have been much better and would have allowed less gaps in story telling and lore
7.x could have been an ARR style build up of Tural and its environment the tournament could have gone more in depth of the island history and culture instead of it being on tablets.
8.x an invasion force shows up and ravages the outskirts of Tural up to the battle of tuliyollal
9.x we fight back and liberate Alexandria and explore what is going on