Like I said, though, Magic's been that way for a long time now. What's the last set you would say provided a "unique and interesting game"? Shards of Alara? Maybe not even that. I just don't really see the point in dismissing these upcoming sets for something that's been true of every Magic set for the last 15 years at least.
Era 1 - Magic makes its own worlds and story with unique characters, cosmology, and design (eg Urza, lorwyn, mirrodin, etc).
Era 2 - Magic starts riffing off of extended fantasy and legends with more direct references, but still a flavour of distinct and unique personality (eg theros, amonkhet, innistrad, etc).
Era 3 - Magic literally just shills other IP now. Jim Hopper can get in a tardis to fight gandalf. An original, unique, creative universe takes a backseat to direct rip-offs.
Have problems with the UB stuff if you want, but that doesn't have anything to do with the upcoming standard sets that afawk are no different than any other set. Dismissing everything because you are hungup on one isolated thing doesn't make any sense.
Not trying to yuck your yum, just pointing out a trend in the enshitification of magic, which you asked me to justify. I feel the current design trends of WotC trying “have their cake and eat it too” with increasing frequency of UB blended premier sets leads to a convergence which makes premier sets less exciting, less unique, and less fun. But each to their own, if you like the modern design, have fun!
For all intents and purposes, LotR is essentially a premier set. It had a pre-release, its draftable, it has multiple booster styles, it replaced the launch slot which would otherwise have been a premier set… we’re just splitting hairs now. The fact it’s not standard legal really doesn’t mean anything anymore.
But Standard legal is literally the definition of a Premier Set. They literally just changed the name of "Standard Set" to "Premier Set" its the same concept.
Now as standard becomes less popular standard legality becomes less important and we are starting to see "supplemental" sets be treated with major focus, but in a world where MH2 and LOTR are the two best selling sets I think that shift was inevitable.
I'm not asking you to justify anything - I'm saying you're wrong. UB hasn't changed premier sets like you're claiming. They are largely the same as any other set released in the last 15+ years, as much as any IP can be the "same" over a decade of development. It is your choice to let your dissatisfaction with UB color your opinion of other Magic product.
And I don't have a "yum" here. These upcoming sets might suck, or they might be amazing. We have no idea based on what's been revealed so far. My only intent here is to push back against this needless negativity based on nothing but personal hangups. I'm not going to claim Magic is perfect. I have issues with UB as well. But having such a negative kneejerk reaction to an announcement so sparse on actual information is just going to turn this community into a toxic hole, which wouldn't be good for anybody.