>>718318779
It just broke all precedent, anon.
Mondo has European buildings and a cathedral with monks, nuns.
Liyue has Chinese buildings and Chinese temples with offering basins and Daoist priest-shamans.
Inazuma has Japanese buildings and Japanese temples with miko and all the jazz.
And then they dropped Sumeru, the buildings of which are this Elvish archetype from LotR/Dalaran, no explicitly religious buildings (Muslim, Hindu, Zoroastrian, just nothing), etc.
Which was obviously a decision made to dodge any possibility of backlash. Breaking with the tradition which was already set up in the manga's Sumeru city panels with minarets and genuine ME-inspired houses.

And in doing so, it paved the way for Natlan being this fucked up pastiche of tribal huts with jukeboxes and grafitti instead of following the game's OG style and adapting some Mayan pyramids or rock-cut churches into the place.