>>96393749
>What exactly changed since 2023?

Brink was fired at some point in 2024.
The 2024 rules/5.5e was released and the audience for 5e wasn't all that interested.
Hasbro thought that they could channel players who bought BG3 into D&D by making sub-classes based on the game and it didn't work because BG3 players want to play BG3.
WotC managed to shed all the lead designers for 5e and are left with their sycohphants who don't know anything about genre fantasy or why people want to play D&D.

This UA is to try and tease the oldschool players with classic content to get them to come back to D&D after years of Hasbro funding puff pieces that also slammed oldschool players as horrible people who were bad for the hobby.
If an official Dark Sun for 5e is on the horizon, expect it to be a skinsuit for a vaguely desert-themed Forgotten Realms. Al-Qadim will never be adapted again.