Golden Girl

Well, they updated the models and maps.

Exccept when it shows us that they're stepped out of line, and then we have to beat some sense into them

And none of them stand up - which is the whole point of GR - Tyrant and his loyalist thugs are the bad guys, and GR set that up very well - the devs took the vague hints from the original Maria and Tina arcs, and fleshed them out into a whole new world of evil.
They took a few bits of evil text said by Tyrant and his Praetors in the ogirinal arcs, and turned them into entire evil story arcs - people like Mother Mayhem and Chimera got turned up to 11, and went form being more generic villains into totally evil monsters, and the crime sof Tyrant, which were only vaguely inted at in the orignal arcs were fleshed out fully in GR, with several new layers of evil added to them.

Well, the Praetorian threat has certainly been kept consistent - Tyrant was set up as planning to conquer Primal Earth way back in I1, and the Praetors have remained the same people from I1 through I20 - although GR made them slightly more evil, because it gave us more detail on them - people like Mother Mayhem and Chimera, for example, had a few lines of evil text in the Maria and Tina arcs expanded into entire evil story arcs in GR, while the crimes of Tyrant's dictatorship were fleshed out, rather than just being hinted at in the original arcs.

There's no possible argument in favor of what Tyrant does to the people of Praetoria - Praetoria only needs the guy who can solo the Hamidon and the sonic fence - everything else is there only to keep Tyrant in power, which is clearly shown in the entire GR storyline - the DE don't feature as enemies at all - the entire efforts of the loyalists are aimed at "keeping the peace" and hunting down "traitors" and helping keep the Seers enslaved, and sending people to be tortured and murdered, and keeping the population docile, and hiding the truth about the dictatorship from them and generally helping to support the evil machine Tyrant has set up.
Everything's focused inwards on represisng the people, rather than focused outwards on defeating the DE - which is understandable, as the DE are the entire excuse for Tyrant to crush Praetoriain his iron fist the way he does.

The "anbiguity" was never removed, because it was never there in the first place.

Depending on how many new trees they add to Lore and Judgement, they could make those the main focus of a I20.5, or they could just add the new trees with the new Trial/Trials in I21.

Maybe something to do with the participation system?

I thought you were quoting the classic "!?!...!!..." from Tunnel Rat

They do

The recent Issues are just the meta-story coming back into focus - GR was more about the details of Tyrant's dictatorship - I19 and I20 are about the bigger picture of Tyrant's dictatorship.

They're for flavor - they let players explore Praetoria from different angles, and discover all the various secrets there.

That's not the way GR was designed - it was 1-20, with 20 being the exit to the main part of the game - the whole GR storyline ramps up to the escape from Praetoria, when it become obvious how evil Tyrant and his dictatorship is.

That's not really possible with the Incarnate storyline - Tyrant and his loyalists thugs are the target for the Incarnates - they have to be defeated before we can face the Coming Storm.

Why would it waste away? It's just another starting option to go with blue and red side.

Heroes don't do what they do for personal gain

I've not seen any inconsistent mythology, and the reward tables are being tweaked in the next patch

We do - and we're getting more of the same in I21 too

Like raids lasting several hours instead of being able to do a couple in the time it takes to run an ITF? Or do you mean they'd gate the Trials so as non-Incarnates couldn't use them as another way of unlocking the Alpha slot?

But it is a bad thing - and it always will be - there's no justification for what Tyrant is doing to his people.

The set-up in GR is carefully designed to remove any chance of that - they made the water drugged, so even the support of the civilians for Tyrant is doubtful - they made the Seers slaves rather than volunteers, they made people "disappear" for even thinking about opposing Tyrant, they put torture chambers and slaughter houses under the PPD precinct buildings - the only thing Praetoria needs ito protect it the guy who can solo the Hamidon, and the sonic fence - but instead of just making that, the devs piled on every possible type of classic evil dictatorship idea and theme, because Tyrant is a supervillain.

GR was being developed at the same time as the Incarnate system - when they were creating Praetoria, they were aware of what Tyrant and the Well were going to do, so they needed to give a few heavy prompts for the stiff-armers shouting "Hail Cole" that that route was a dead-end, and get them to either chose blue or red side so they'd be able to do the Incarnate content later on.

You're lying to yourself if you think GR ever showed Tyrant and his dictatorship as anything other than utterly evil - the Praetorians have not changed From Issue 1.
The only thing that changed was the perspective of the interaction with them - GR let people play as stormtroopers serving Tyrant instead of the usual fighting them that we do in the Maria and Tina arcs, but the basic framework never changed - Tyrant was always a supervillain oppressing his own people, and planning to conquer others.

Heroes are always heroic

What exactly has changed from GR to I19 and I20?
Is it the crazed, power-mad emperor plotting an invasion in GR turning out to be a crazed, power mad emperor launching an invasion in I19 and I20?
Is it the psycho psychic who runs the emperor's enslavement program in GR turning out to be a psycho psychic who runs the emperor's enslavement program in I20?
Is it the aggressive, loud-mouth thug in charge of the Powers Divison in GR turning out to be a violent, loud-mouthed thug in charge of Lambda Sector in I20?
Is it the evil chief scientist of the emperor and his bimbo catgirl girlfriend in GR turning out to be the evil chief scientist of the emperor with a bimbo catgirl girlfriend in I19?
Or is it just the general discovery of the evil, superpowered fascist dictatorship with its mass-murder, brain-washing, torture and repression turning out to be an evil superpowered fascist dictatorship using mass-murder, brain-washing, torture and repression?

The GR AVs built on their original versions seen in the Maria and Tina arcs, and I19 and I20 have continued to foucs on those same characteristics - GR gave the Paretoriansa change of clothes and environemnts, not a change of personality.

I was joking - they did give us an extra way of getting the temps even once we're done with the sabotage

If only the devs had thought to design it to give players a chance to get new acid and pacification grenades even after the sabotage phase was over.

A 30-40 Praetorian wilderness zone with a Vanguard forward base and a focus on fighting the Devouring Earth who have started becoming more active again now that the Hamidon is waking up and a 40-50 West Coast neutral settlement zone that Tyrant is trying to bring fully into his Empire could be acceptable fillers for that 30-50 "gap"