The fact that IS-sentiment is at a low after RNG-fest should not be a surprise to anyone. If IS thought players would respond happily to less static rewards than the last anniversary, then their view of gacha psychology must be rather esoteric--not necessarily wrong, but weird.

And on the topic of F2P, we're in a bad rut atm. They've introduced the newest power creep (Sturdy Impact, Null Disrupt, L!Azura, etc.) but have yet to run the demotes we tend to get when new power creep is released. If they demote all 2017 5* exclusives heroes (sans Brave heroes?) to 4-5* I think the F2P and the overall IS sentiment will rebound pretty well. Because, frankly, I see no reason for them to do less. 4* Hector you can spend 20k feathers on for DC feels fine when majority of DC users would still want null disrupt anyways and there's more competition in the A-slot anyways.

My only genuine complaint is: They should align the schedule to make anniversary better. Book 3 release was December, demotes were April, anniversary this year has been nothing tangible outside of votes. And the vote events are always guaranteed to make people upset because most people won't get what they wanted. (Ike was only voted for by 30~% after the 4-hero-vote-off, this year people getting the unit they voted for is guaranteed to be <25%) If the banner is 5/3 split, I think sentiment will rebound accordingly, but who knows.