I think that you're implementing too many twists/advantages/swaps in the game, and it's causing a backfire effect. When players make a big move, it's usually because they believe it will leave them in an advantageous position going forward. However, if you implement numerous swaps and random advantages that completely throw off the math involved for the players or scramble the entire gameboard repeatedly, what will occur is a backfire. Instead of allowing players to flex their strategic wits and make impactful plays, instead they will play much more conservatively, knowing that there's a good chance that this week's vote won't actually matter in the long run. Being part of a coup and flipping the power structure is much less attractive if there's a high probability that the next week things will be scrambled again and you might just wind up sitting with those people you betrayed on a new tribe.
I believe these factores are also the hidden villain behind a lot of the editing complaints this season. Just like how frequent swaps and advantages make it hard for the players to make any solid deals or choices, those frequent upheavals also make it difficult to get any sort of consistent, continuous narrative storylines in play, since players' positions in the game keep randomizing week to week.
In addition, new "No Revote" rules likely played into making people play more conservatively, because the penalty for not having a unified vote was now absolutely gigantic and caused people to play more conservatively throughout the season.
The thing w/ Cirie sucked, and I hope you're much more careful w/ Idols and such going forward. In 3-tribe seasons w/ 3 idols floating around, having a Legacy advantage seems utterly unnecessary, and I also think that what we saw w/ Sarah/Sierra represents pretty much the extent to which it can be strategically interesting in the game. Unlike w/ the Idols, Extra Vote, and even the vote steal (which sort of sucks- advantages should be advantageous yet fraught w/ hidden peril for the user, not pernicious against others), the Legacy Advantage is completely passive and doesn't require itself to be actively played. This makes it very uninteresting, much like the problematic Exile Island/Cook Islands iteration of the Hidden Immunity Idol.
I also think that the "2 tribes vote out one person" twist was actually a good idea that you completely botched the timing on. This idea would actually be good if it were the first merge tribal in a 3-way merge. One tribe wins immunity, and either sits in the Jury benches or gets to participate in the first combined vote, while the other 2 are both fully vulnerable. This would alleviate the valid complaints that it was random and unfair (just like the fake tribals in Survivor's AU version that resulted in swaps instead of eliminations.)
My final criticism is with the casting. Your fatal mistake here was mixing "Superstar" players like Ozzy, Cirie, Tony, Sandra, etc. w/ "Second Chance" tier players who didn't have that sort of reputation. Just like mixing Newbies and Vets is a bad idea (outside of a structure like S25 w/ medevac returnees), mixing these winners and players who are virtually winners in the minds of other players will lead to a bad season w/ the players w/ massive reputations getting blown up early. If you do something like this again, please make it Champions v Challengers.
To end on a positive, the new FTC structure was good, and I'm glad you've kept it going forward. Having the jury explicitly outlining their voting rationale is good, and should hopefully lead to less audience confusion after Final Tribal Councils in the future.
Although I know I have a lot of criticisms here, I absolutely love the show and just want to see it be the best it can be, and I know you do too. Been watching since S1E3 and was immediately hooked.
