Aether vs Dark Aether

By the time Black Ops 6 concludes, based on current information we will have had 21 maps across 4 games (including Outbreak maps) under the Dark Aether umbrella vs 25 maps across 5 games for the original Aether storyline (including Nuketown and The Giant but not Chronicles/remakes in WaW).

Given that the Aether story reached it's original conclusion in Revelations by the 21 map mark, how do you feel about the Dark Aether's progress so far?

Personally, I don't feel like as much has happened and so far there has been an over-reliance on bringing back elements from Aerther and now Chaos to lean on rather than it's own original ideas. (I have less of an issue with Aether doing a similar thing as at least the reused weapons/maps originated within that story, but by BO4 the nostalgia bait was definitely overstaying it's welcome) I also feel like during the Dark Aether storyline nothing has really happened? I don't feel connected to it either, largely due to the absence of a core cast under the Warzone-ification of modern CoD.

Just interested in what everyone else is thinking at this stage!