Anyone else enjoying the revamped Balenos quests?

I've put in nearly two hours so far into the new quests and tutorial, and I'm actually enjoying it quite a bit. It gives a lot of much needed context for the MC's relationship to Illezra, how we meet the Black Spirit, what the deal with Red Nose and Giath is, and just breathes a lot more into the world and its lore.

Only thing that I'd wish PA would do is create some sort of actual tutorial/introduction to lifeskills and incorporate that into the main questline. For instance, there's a moment in the new questline where we straight up mine a rock, but we don't do it with an actual pickaxe. I feel like it was a bit of a wasted opportunity to show new players how to equip life tools and such.

Overall, I REALLY hope that this is the last time that they revamp the main storyline. So far it looks promising and I'm curious on how they'll do the rest -- especially Valencia II, why the fuck does this questline still exist?