Is Clean the Scene really that much easier to play than Xyrella ? Is Hollow hound that good on its own? Is Brawl not at least as stupid as the other cards you mentioned?
I will give you that many of the questlines were poorly designed with Seek Guidance being an absolute medal winner in bad design. I would also think that most hero cards fits your description of bad design a lot better than the cards you mentioned. Just reading you list tells me: You love control warrior and hates when you lose to hunter and priest for symbolic reasons :)
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I would say every class got interesting cards, priest while getting a powerful titan got the least synergy cards and my biggest pet peeve is that they got no new early/cheap clears and let's face it the reason we don't see control priest at all is due to the current tempo of the meta. Sure they have good 5 mana wipes but aside from holy nova they have very little tools to deal with swarms of boards on turn 2-4 and that's usually when meta decks have reached critical mass.
Im a priest main (please don't judge too harshly) so that part sucks a bit for me. That being said:
I'm excited to try out forge/armor warrior
Overload/control shaman got alot of love so I'm excited to try that out too.
Treant Midrange druid also looks very promising
Rainbow mage looks meh to me, nothing new they will have RNG tempo (mana cheat) and damage to cheat out lots of wins. Mech mage also got alot of love.
Paladin will continue to grind my gears with unkillable boards that will net them alot of wins simply cause blizzard no longer cares about creating answers to the questions (the answer to beat pure paladin is faster aggro imho)
I love the added cards to support relic demon hunter so that's exciting.
Warlock looks like they got implock cards but of a more defensive nature?
Death Knight plague is likely gonna dominate and maybe rainbow DK will make a comeback.. who knows?
Overall this is the best expansion in terms of interesting cards in a long while for me so let's hope it won't be aggro or die for another 3 months.
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Is there something im not seeing or is this a worse khartut defender?
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Interesting you should mention chess and that its a skilled game. Sure there is no RNG but just because RNG exist in HS does not mean HS is devoid of skill, cause if that was the case anyone could gain rank 1 right? Or at least if it was RNG that decided who won whoever hit the top-lists would fluctuate way more.
This is not the case and theres a very good reason for that.
Coming back to chess:
To an amateur it may seem that chess is a game with near endless potential moves, and when you learn that to become a high level chess player you need to eventually learn all the moves and chain moves; that if I move piece A to spot B I also need to be aware of the chain-reaction of that move.
That stuff can be quite intimidating, and if you are an amateur you could even attribute those moves to luck or like you said RNG. "Hah Bob.. you were lucky to see that my king was compromised and get CM on me) Well.. you only need a modicum of knowledge of chess to understand that it leaves nothing up to chance.
So AI and algorithms aside. Although it may seem that every move is random and chain-reaction is out of your hands. Its like with chess, that when you realize the potential moves (or draws) and developments are finite. That you can start to map how many potential developments there are, and to plan the ideal move to set up a win.
Im not a good hearthstone player, but I would imagine if you asked a pro, they would agree to my assesment.
That aside I agree with you that having a more casual attitude may very likely make the experience more enjoyable. Afterall we play the game (hopefully) first and foremost to have fun. Whatever else comes is just a bonus.