I really wish RS3 had a small team of developers who would work on quests that aren't related to the current seasonal quests at all. Maybe they could poll what quest we want from them next? Imagine getting new penguin quests or new Menaphos/Desert related quests. You mentioned the World Gate being underutilized and I think this model could use that as inspiration. These quests don't even have to be sequels to anything they could be one-offs. I really loved doing a lot of the quests while going for the quest cape and I really wish we got more. Also make new quests longer and harder please :)
whenever quests come up and have world changing effects, it seems only the quest itself shows the changes, but after the quest its almost like nothing happened. need more stuff like edgeville destroyed after rotm, lumby crater, tuska, stuff that shifts the world due to the story being told.
Had a similar experience and being naive. Seen people solo'ing Bandos back in the day and thought I could do that. Had full bandos, fury, max gear. Got in there and died in like 20 seconds and lost it all. The quests, the thing I love about the game, have been really short since Daughter of Chaos. Fort Fornithry has only been out since February of 2023. It's like they blow the budget on Elder God Wars and Necromancy. I'm thinking the Fort stuff is like a grand reset, being after we averted the Grand Revision. That like the most grand scale things that can happen. I remember they said they wanted to "get rid of the gods" and wind down. Gods being stomping around for the past 10 years. I think the story so far is fine with all the lore that procedes it, but they should have been bigger. I would absolutely hate if we had to vote for stuff like OSRS. Get some data but don't give a lot away. I'd assume OSRS is way easier to code so more polling works better for them.
Talking as an osrs player: The poll system is kinda shit. Yes, you get a data point. But it's worthless if the community isn't alligned. Like. ALot of people dont want pvp updates because they dont care. But for the 20% high end intensity players they are passionate about it. They didnt get anything for years. ALot of people dont want change. But things should change so they dont get stale