I don't think we're disagreeing as much as you think we are. They took the setting down to the fundamentals and then added the stuff they wanted back in a new or updated way. They didn't feel beholden to make the kitchen the same size or layout because that's what it was like before, they put in a new kitchen that kept elements of the old but did so in a new way.
Dark Sun is going to be the same. So is Dragonlance, Greyhawk, Planescape, and any other legacy setting. It shouldn't surprise anyone going forward.
They definitely renovated the kitchen, but that kitchen still has a stove, an oven or two, a standing mixer, and refrigerator. They're just newer appliances with a couple more bells and whistles. Y'know. Got an Icemaker, this time!
The only really "Big" changes to Ravenloft are that there's no central map where all the realms are connected, and the majority of people there are soulless puppets acting out their day to day lives so we don't have to consider why the Dark Powers are tormenting a bunch of innocent civilians just because the ruler of their nation was a complete and absolute prong in life. Everything else is changes to individual domain stories to tell interesting and varied morality plays.
They're not going to do that for Dark Sun, though. Why? 'Cause there's no need to heighten the "Nightmare Logic" aspect of the setting in order to make it more oriented toward Action-Horror. But as I've noted in a different thread... they might make it more "Mad Max: Fury Road" than "Conan the Barbarian Enters the Thunderdome". More Action-Survival than previous editions. Maybe they'll focus on threats to survival beyond combat like they did describing each type of Horror and assign different survival threats to regions?
They're probably not going to remove Thri-Kreen from the setting just because they'd need a thri-kreen race. They're probably not going to erase Psionics from the setting because they don't want to make a Psionics System. They're not going to erase Defiling or Preserving, either.
Why? 'Cause those things are -fundamental- to the setting in the same way Monsters and Mists are fundamental to Ravenloft.
Will they change up the names and genders of the Sorcerer-Kings? Oh, probably. Will they alter the different City-States to fit WotC's current political ideology? Absolutely. Will they make the game more action-oriented? 100%.
But roads connecting the domains isn't what makes the Domains of Dread into Ravenloft. Neither is the suffering of innocent souls. (Yeah, I know, you dislike the "Zarovich is the first Vampire and the Morninglord is gone" but that's less about the setting as a whole and more about Strahd's story... or... more accurately... THIS Strahd. 'Cause the other Strahd and the Morninglord and everything still exist in one of the other versions floating around the Shadowfell... though it should be noted that in this version Jander Sunstar tried to kill Strahd when Strahd wanted another servant.)