This year we get 4 updates instead of 6 like we got last year. In exchange, these updates were supposed to be more substantial and more packed. Two updates have been mainly qol, One of them a skilltree for 2 characters (which many people really dislike wurt's skilltree).
I really don't see how the updates this year have been more substantial than last year.
If this last update is another qol focused update I think many players will lose interest and it has been going that way for a while now. Almost all english speaking servers are deserted nowadays, if the steam player numbers are true, china and russia must make up like 95 percent of the playerbase.