I don't like being negative, but that's kinda how I feel about the situation as well. I like (most) of what's being added but it feels a bit lackluster for a last patch. There is a lot that hasn't been addressed at all...or only partially (which maybe could give hope or be worrisome if they considered that as a final solution).
I feel like a spoiled brat for not being more excited about it after the testing the patch a bit. Maybe I've already had too many playthroughs in addition to what's been mentioned here 😅
To me personally Patch 7 was the pinnacle of quality and stability, but unfortunately went downhill ever since. Patch 8 was alright, but ruined a lot of things I loved about the game and now Patch 9 didn't really do either. Just left most issues of Patch 8 and added new features.
So I'm worried too about some questionable design decisions, primarily about the modern overly vibrant hair colors which I absolutely despise as they ruin immersion since they truly do not belong in a game like this. It makes me worried because I feel like they forced those colors upon us for the purpose of inclusivity rather than making a great gaming experience. Because I am still months later ever since Patch 8 dropped still exclusively forced to using Black Raven hair color for all my characters, where previously I had the entire realistic color spectrum to choose from, all because they forced these overly vibrant hair colors onto me without an option to tone it down back to realism. And to think that DOS2 which has a somewhat cartoony yet beautiful art style which is quite colorful, does not have this problem whatsoever... I miss my dark purple hair color damnit!
So I'm a bit disappointed most issues still remain from Patch 8 and it kinda makes me not willing to play through this patch, especially because it is the final update so I see no purpose in playing it and providing feedback any longer since this is the end of Early Access. It's a fine update like any other. Worse than Patch 7, better than Patch 8, but terrible as a final update. It's just not satisfactory to me, especially the removal of the black fade-in/fade-out of the cutscenes and leftover issues that were ignored.
But it's no biggie. Whatever they do not fix, I'll fix myself. I'm back into making mods lately and I don't usually enjoy having to make mods that fix bad design decisions, but if that's what it takes... I'll do it myself
