I mean before Mistlands once you beat Yagluth and got all the items associated with the end game sure the "game is over". Imo the skeleton staff thing could use some tweaks like having a more interesting model for skeletons + using said model with tweaked textures to populate Mountain / Plains for a bit harder enemies.

I agree that the Mistlands environment is annoying to deal with and in my single play through I found myself getting rather disinterested in exploring more of the new biome because the mist / terrain wasn't enjoyable for me.

The update was indeed rushed at the very least regarding the fact that the new items cannot be fully upgraded as we are lacking access to all upgrade stations. Perhaps that is intentional and they will be introduced with Ashlands / Deep North but I find that kinda unlikely as the devs said nothing about that possibility + having to travel that distance to new biomes with armor that is barely above upgraded padded armor is questionable to me.

I think Plains or Mountains will remain my favorite biomes atm.