Well let's see. The starter set (presuming you mean Basic)
No, I mean the Starter Boxed Set. You know, highly well reviewed, great adventure, etc.?
the adventures have not received very good reviews (like most WotC adventures) and are often discussed in the "how can I fix this?" manner;
I disagree. They have three adventures so far: Starter Boxed set (Lost Mine of Phandelver), Tyranny of Dragons (Hoard of the Dragon Queen, The Rise of Tiamat, D&D Expeditions – Tyranny of Dragons), and Elemental Evil (Princes of the Apocalypse, D&D Expeditions – Princes of the Apocalypse). Of those, one got negative reviews (Tyranny of Dragons). The other two got positive overall reviews, with the first getting stellar reviews.
More importantly,
you liking the content has nothing to do with whether or not we have reached a middle ground in terms of quantity of content, which is what we're discussing. That's the point I was making in fact, that you were replying to.
the free expansions, from what I've seen, amount to "a handful of spells and some magic items"
So...you have not even looked at them? We have new races, new classes, new backgrounds, and new spells (do we even have new magic items? Not even sure about that). I am starting to suspect you have not even read the stuff you're complaining about if that is what you thought it was? And if that is the case, why should we assume you'd read more of it if they had more of it?
the UA articles are useless to the vast majority of players because they're COVERED in "DM red flag" things that make it incredibly unlikely that they'll fly at most tables AND their lack of playtesting is often blatant
They JUST released the results of the surveys on those and the opinion of most people was very positive. So you speaking for "the vast majority of players" in that seems false.
But again more importantly,
you liking the content has nothing to do with whether or not we have reached a middle ground in terms of quantity of content, which is what we're discussing. You're just repeatedly proving my point - it's not the quantity of content, it's that the content we have isn't to your tastes. Fair enough, but that's not the same as not having enough content to qualify as a "middle ground" of content being put out.
Dragon+ doesn't actually contain content
"Content" is not "Options I can add to my character". "Content" includes things like stories and descriptions of things in a setting, or which aid game play. Tons of stuff in the DMG falls in those two categories, and Dragon+ includes those things. And, again, your complaint seems to be "I don't like the content they're putting out" which is different from "they're not putting out content".
I haven't seen any of this AL stuff you mention and there are plenty of people who never join AL
Oh, you have not seen it so even though it's wildly popular and used, it doesn't count as content?
a DM screen is only useful for DMs who can't put together something better for themselves, which I'd argue most of them can.
Right, you don't like the content, so it doesn't count unless you personally like it?
some organized play stuff that I've never heard mentioned before today.
Well you could look at
the sticky thread at the top of the forum we're posting in if you are curious. It's popular, it's good stuff, you should check it out.
Certainly, the "wall of books" is a problem for new customers. As I imply above, though, I'm inclined to think a middle ground is possible.
