Its interesting to see people look Shadowbringers as a weird side story and then others suggestion the garlean empire thing is also a weird side story. Very different narrative priorities for some
Anything is possible with enough edge.
I think the thing is, people see the Garlean thing as the "main" story because of how it was set up in 1.0 and ended with them pulling down a moon to nuke the country and then we open back 5 years later with them being a threat and then don't really do much with them after 2.0 until SB. So it's like, they have always been the "end goal" of everything and SB was focussed on them and it seemed to be set up to take the fight to them and then we get interrupted to go on a "side quest".
But really, the "main story" is the stuff with Ascians and Hydaelyn and Zodiark and the shattering and the shards etc and Garlemald and Eorzea and Doma etc are all just pieces. And the revelations in SB regarding the Garlean empire should really show us that the whole Ascian plot and Garlean plot are actually closely tied together.
It just really does feel like a side story, even if we will be going deep on light/dark and Hydaelyn/Zodiark and more Ascian fuckery because for like, 2 yeras we've been going full steam ahead on "ah ha! this is our chance!" and gearing up to invade or at least directly engage with Garlemald politically only to get the rug pulled from under us with "actually, this other dimension is trying to summon you for help", even if it will still carry on and provide answers regarding the whole light/dark conflict, the calamities and the Ascians.
I still really want to deal with Garlemald. Just get it over with because while they are a big bad, they aren't THE big bad and at this point we should all know that so it feels wierd to keep putting off that area.