I've already made an introduction to this series of post here but never actually kept writing it, check that out if want.
(Little disclaimer: as you can probably tell, english is not my first language, I'll try to explain myself the best I can, I really hope you can understand everything)
So, we often hear about people complaining about the lack of content, expecially from people who have a LOT of hours played. I've also been that guy, so I tried to think of something that could get added to the game and actually got to a different conclusion: "we actually do have quite some content, so... what's the problem?
Imo people don't ask for new content because the game actually doesn't have enough content, the real problem is people is getting bored of the content we already have, and so they crave for something new. Let's be honest here, Sea of Thieves works around a gameplay loop that is particulary repetitive, it can get boring after a decent amount of hours and if you quit the game you won't come back just for 1 update. There are games out ther that works around a gameplay loop that doesn't feel repetitive and boring, I think this is because most of the game mechanics in SoT are too simple and not interactive enough, also difficulty get often managed in a very lazy way.
For example: Base skeletons! To fight one, or a small group, you literally need to group them and then spam left click using your Cutlass for about two combo (they cant even react cause they get staggered). Basically 0 risk, 0 interactivity, just pressing one button over and over withouth having the need to move.
Athena Voyages are meant to be more difficult right? No. It just takes more time to do one and the skeletons have more HPs, you need like 9 cutlass attacks to kill a skeleton spawned during an Athena. This doesn't make the voyage more difficult, it's just more boring and frustrating to do the same thing over and over, it just takes more time. Even bosses, the fact that you can't easely stagger them makes them even less interactive and feel even more frustrating to fight. Shadow Skeleton probably are the best skeletons right now, you need to find a good position to use your lantern so you maximize the number of skeletons affected by the light, you can play a bit around them. Gold ones are the worst, feels like it just take more time to kill them, nothing more and nothign special. Plant ones doesn't even feel like a variation since most of the time you won't be fighting that close to water anyway.
This game really needs a PvE revamp with a more deep PvE combat system. I understand that this game wants to be within everyone skill's reach, but I don't want it to became excessively hard, just a little more depth enough that there's more interaction between the player and the mobs.
An example I thought of: skeletons eyes glows right before shooting, if you react fast enough you can parry-dodge with the cutlass and avoid the projectile. Right now skeletons missing shoots feels very random, having more control over it by using this mechanic that also involve a little bit of skill should make you feel rewarded on dodging it. I think it's always a better experience when you get rewarded for doing something right and punished for doing something bad. Sea of thieves doesn't really feel that way, Skeleton captains being unstaggerable and having unstoppable abilities makes you feel like being punished for no reason and doesn't reward you for anything. Most people prefer to aggro the captains to the shores and kill them with cannons, at this point it becomes a boring battle because you are shooting to an enemy that can't even react since you are out of range while shooting at him. Let's make captains more fun to fight, make it that you feel rewarded for fighting them with sword and guns, not punished. Here we need to work on more interactive abilities and work around the cutlass dodge (which has lot of potential that devs are not using at all in my opinion). An ability may be the captain throwing rocks or explosive at you and you need to get out of the AoE before it lands, or either you need to shoot a specific spot of the skeleton body while he's charging a powerfull ability in order to stop him. Those are really basic stuff, but still... SoT combat system is so simplyfied that it would benefit from this.
More skeletons variants would be cool too, like Ashen Skeletons in the devils that are immune to geysers dmg and breath fire after charging the attack (the charge animation may be them drinking from a glowing bottle), the charge animation should give the time to position yourself out of the cone of fire, or either get behind the skeletons so you can hit it while he's breathing fire in the other direction.
Also note that the game would really need some real new content in some areas, like unique voyages for pirate legends that are not actually one big reskin and that are actually harder and not just more time consuming.
This is everything I had to say today, but I think there are other areas of the game that needs a revamp, here some of them: forts, devil's roar, randomencounters/kraken, PL voyages and hideout, Merchant Alliance voyages.
But I don't want to say too much in one thread, let's just talk about Skeletons PvE for the moment :)
(Haven't checked what I just wrote, I'll post it and check for typing errors and stuff).