Jesus, you just love being contrary, don't you. The shadow druids in game literally
do not give two hoots about our condition, they won't even bring it up in the conversation with them- don't pretend this is a crucial part of their dogma to kill everyone infected with tadpoles on sight that precludes talking to them, this is just reaching for excuses.
The Shadow Druids have operations elsewhere, and like all druids have interest in preserving nature (their way) letting the absolute control everything goes against their goals, particularly when the cultists want to kill everyone with a different religion. You really think the rite of thorns is a one-size-fit all solution to all the Shadow Druid's problems? You haven't been around the Shadow Druids much. A singular solution to all their problems would be both extremely boring as a narrative excuse to excise them from the game and run counter to their aims and methods. They are not passive, they are expansionist, and in fact their use of the rite in this game is particularly aggressive, since they aim to use it to isolate the druids of the grove and kill off the ones they don't like so they can gain full control.
The fact that you admit that the version of the Shadow Druids you want to see in the game is different than the one in the original saga and yet you have the chutzpah to refer to the notion that
'we could work with group X that we could also work with in literally every other game of the series' as
fanfiction is just
The quest is railroady, has no accommodations for players who might not be playing good-aligned characters, and has several obvious dead-ends where content was either cut or otherwise left unfinished. This is not an ideal state. And I do not believe anyone could honestly get as riled up about the idea that it could be improved somewhat as you are.
