2018-2019 updates i liked in no particular order

ds2 (not everything though)
a taste of hope
bryophyta
hosidious rework
sarachnis
tob
beginner clues
fremenik exiles
lms
my arm quest
loot directly into looting bag

definitely some small ones i missed just what i remember

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stuff like ds2 tho is a prime example of how to take a great update and make it only good, or even bad

ds2 gave us, new avas, new range dfs, bone neck, a new pet, new bis bones (and actually viable), zulrah 2.0 but better for ironmen, dplate, dcb, #1 alt method new top tier normal spells, new rc method, new bis cooking range, new place to collect dragon scales, new IM construction meta

that is way too much stuff to come from 1 update, even as big as ds2

the quest itself is amazing, and even if it had no post quest content, people still would have done it for various reasons including

fun from the quest
unlocking quest cape
music cape
nmz cost reduction etc
xp from the quest reward

i understand thats not enough for some people, and it would be kind of underwhelming to get nothing cool after all that. but that list of new best things is huge

rune dragons dont need to be an amazing alt method
avas doesnt need +range str, people would use just for ammo save

2019 is petscape, people will do bosses for pets, vorkath didnt need to have zulrah 2.0 drop table, especially when it was dropping new BIS bones every kill already

if the average vork kill was 30% the gp value it is now, lots of people would still do vork

the range next to the bank in myths guild is just dumb lmao, but the other stuff like new con meta, and dragon scales etc is fine to be in the reward

the issue is a LOT of updates suffer from this on smaller scale. new content is massively over incentivized

I think a lot of the issue with this, is that jagex judges content based on how many people are using it daily, so to them if vork got kill 150k times on day 1, thats 'more successful' than if it only got killed 100k

it seems like most updates just make things easier/faster with no trade offs. just fewer clicks, or more xp/hr, or more afk but still getting the same reward

there is a lot of room for parallel content. some might disagree but i think mining minus vm is a good example of it vm throws the effort/reward out of wack and is by far the best method for lazyscapers

but ignoring it you have
mlm, afk, profitable, but slow
blast mine, not afk, consumes resource, more profitable, more xp
3t4g, not afk, no profit (loss on stones too), but best xp

theres room for balance like this in other skills still too

herblore basically only has 1 method, making pots and no matter what you make its pretty fast and expensive
theres room for an update that offers 'slow' herb xp like 100k/hr but its very cheap

that idea i just pulled out of my ass obviously has to be balanced around ironmen because otherwise its a ridiculous boost for them, but im sure it could be done

if that was introduced with some decently fun content, or as a quest reward that would be a good update the issue is, not everyone would do it, it would be more efficient for mains to just earn gp and train herblore normally, but lots of casuals would do it for sure.

but that would make the engagement numbers look bad, and seem like not a good update

theres 3 main things i like in updates

1. quests
2. updates that make there be more choices for the player to make. there shouldn't be just 1 BEST THING that you point to, and say 'do that' as the answer

"if you want X do Y, or you could do A instead if you find B fun its not much worse and you save Z" is better

3. things that focus on keeping the very nebulous 'oldschool feel'

i loved song of the elves the quest, but i hate the graphics of the elves. priff and surrounding areas look really good, but they dont fit what i like in osrs