Is giving Dominaria a "cohesive identity" code for "turning it into a one trick pony" as you've been doing for every world you've invented in the post-8th edition era? Honestly, if that's the plan I'm fairly certain most of the people who've wanted you to go back would prefer you just not. Part of Dominaria's charm is being an actual developed world with different cultures.
All our worlds have depth. Each one has a cosmology with different creatures and cultures. A world guide about all the components is crafted for each world.
The people who love calling it a “World of Hats” are doing the same disservice as the people calling Jace a “Mary Sue”. It’s a snarky undermining of the incredible amount of hard work done by our creative team to make cool new worlds.
What our worlds are not are hodgepodge worlds with disparate parts that have no connection with one another.
“But that’s the way the real world is.” There’s a difference between what works in the real world and what works in stories. Real life is often unbelievable through the lens of story. I had umpteen writing classes drive this point home.
And even when our worlds have more distinction between the parts, Alara and Tarkir as examples, there’s a relationship between the parts.
There was no reason for Ice Age and Mirage to be on the same plane other than laziness on our part. Them co-existing on the same world did little to enhance one another.
When you have a Multiverse, it’s important that you craft your worlds so that the players can remember them, that they have some kind of identity. Star Wars and Star Trek treating their worlds like this was not a fluke but an important means to build a world where the pieces were memorable.
Here’s my counter argument to those who feel that worlds with lots of unconnected elements make for better worlds. Imagine we just clumped two consecutive worlds together. Amonkhet and a Kaladesh are one world and Innistrad and Zendikar are one world. And Tarkir and Theros.
Have we just made better worlds? Is part of the world optimistic steam punk with an Indian vibe and the other Bolas-crafted Egyptian inspired world, somehow make the world more sophisticated? Or is it just more cluttered and less distinct?
The reason it took us so long to return to Dominaria is we wanted to do it right. We wanted to be respectful of what the world was but bring to it a modern sensibility of being a world that had a cohesive identity rather than a hodgepodge of unrelated elements.
We did it though and in a way that is both respectful of what came before and productive in moving forward with a world that becomes part of our stable of worlds that doesn’t stick out like a sore thumb. Old fans, please have faith. We too love Dominaria.