I'm all for representation, but I'm curious how that'll work with modern original minifigures being yellow. Would they start using actual skin tones?
And how do you represent mental disability in a toy without a story attached to it? Would some start coming with brief descriptions like, "This is Bob the contruction worker. He has ADHD."
Insane planning's a bit of an overstatement. Those storylines made more of an effort to connect with each other, but there wasn't much advanced planning.
The push they got from leadership to make an entire wave not connecting to anything in the ongoing canon for the first time is interesting. Could they be trying to see if the sets can stand without the show, to possibly phase it out?