The catch being... there's not really a lot of official build-up. There was one article with an interview and a little teasing, but not much else. All the build-up is taking place via fan speculation and hype. We're building ourselves up and, very likely, setting ourselves up for disappointment.
He's being cute and doing teasing. If it isn't a physical book, he's being too cute by half (aka: a jerk).
For example, I doubt we'll see something like SCAG. Because that's the one product that has seemed like a disappointment, and they haven't done something else like that. Instead, they have talked about something like Curse of Strahd, which was an adventure with a setting introduction. Something like Death House paired with 30-pages of setting.
You have a point. Not being a Realms fan, I can only speculate, but I think the disappointment had a lot to do with the expectation of a full 3.5 FRCS type book. As an Eberron fan, I'm fully braced for a tasting platter for Eberron. That doesn't mean WotC will release a SCAG-type book. But, it is the minimum I've ever seen as actually supporting a setting.
That I'm doubtful about. I think this is something for the established fans, while they're leaving the Realms for new fans.
I'm not expecting them to pivot all adventures to be set in Eberron. I'm expecting the
absolute best-case to be a SCAG and an adventure, but that's not even remotely my expectation. It's more likely SCAG
or an adventure -- and I think either
could work. I'd prefer a SCAG, but you
could do Eberron or Athas as an adventure. It'd whet people's appetite, but wouldn't qualify as actual support, IMO. It's the minimum to say, "We did Eberron" though.
I'm still expecting online PDFs.
If it doesn't sit on a shelf in my FLGS, I don't consider it an actual release of the setting. Any announcement of such a product is akin to an announcement of "Yeah, we decided that we're not actually doing anything with these settings, so we're at least no longer blocking them on DMs guild." Really, though, as much as a rail against WotC being too focused on the Realms, I'm expecting them to do something more than a PDF for other settings. It may not be exactly what I want, but I'd be genuinely shocked if it was purely digital. That shock would probably be the end of any attachment I had to the D&D "brand", too. I understand the money behind the focus on the Realms. Trying to pass off a PDF as actual support for other settings and "fan service" would completely alienate me in a way that even "Screw it, we're never putting out 5E product for Eberron, so we're making it open on the DMs Guild" wouldn't. I could see a way that a PDF for a baseline, then opening it up wouldn't alienate me, but Nathan's tease tweet plus the non-announcement tease completely screwed that. If he's willing to do that for a PDF, he's flat out incompetent and represents a team I don't actually want to spend any mental energy on.
Edit: Maybe "incompetent" is too strong of a word. Mechanically, I find 5E to be easily the best version of D&D, ever. The marketing and branding strategy, however, leave me cold. I'm not talking just about the focus on the Realms (which I've made no bones about my opinion of). The entire strategy just turns me off. If I hadn't been playing D&D, as a brand, since BECMI, I wouldn't give it a second look and would probably actively run away from what appears to be an aging property eating itself in an attempt to stay "cool", with all the panache of a septuagenarian in a halter top. Clearly, the strategy is working, because 5E is staying ridiculously strong, in the market. I just get the continual impression that I'm not the target audience and the game is moving further and further from what I actually love. Worth noting is that I'm indifferent to the system, but play D&D for the readily available building blocks to use in my own creation, especially its rich history of multiple worlds that are completely separate, while using the same basic tropes.
