So I noticed something when browsing a copy of MMoM and the new NPC stat blocks: WotC has gone out of it's way to NOT give warlocks eldritch blast.
I cross checked a few monsters built in being warlock-based (the three npc warlocks, deathloks and xvart warlock) all of them had EB in their cantrip list. Yet none of them do now. Nor has EB moved to the actions list, they just don't have it. Further, they don't have a ranged spell attack at all: they have melee attacks (rapier, scimitar, dagger or claw) and an AoE effect (sometimes) but no ranged spell attack akin to EB, fire bolt, or chill touch. If they didn't want to use EB specifically, they could have given them a close substitute (evil beam or something) but none of them have anything close.
That's got me thinking about how they may look at warlocks in AE.
Granted, it's a stretch to assume anything based on NPC stats, especially when NPCs are drifting further away from PCs in design, but it struck me as odd that warlocks are you quintessential blaster class, with a melee/hexblade build being the minority. Due to how invocations interact with EB, the cantrip is a must have and all other ones are suboptimal. It's a good guess EB would be revisited in AE, but is it possible they might get rid of it entirely? To free up more builds than EB sniper and hexblade melee builds, they might just remove EB and work on giving them more spell options? As I said, it's wild speculation, but would people be interested in seeing a warlock not married so much to EB as a defining feature?