I know what you mean, but "Dragons are having a renaissance right now," is the funniest mental image

Modern Fantasy fans be like: "Breakface McMurderstab is one of the most morally subtle characters in all of western literature"

I really agree with you about fantasy being more a setting instead of having any impact on the narrative. I feel like I see that a lot

"We are seeing low fantasy, focusing on just humans, but dragons are a big deal"

"Lowered bar for prose" – I'm so glad you went there. I'm also not a snob when it comes to prose, but bad prose can be distracting. And it's so preventable. Get an editor or some beta readers. Watch some Sanderson creative writing lectures. There's no such thing as perfect writing, but that doesn't mean writers shouldn't take the time to improve their craft.

For me the biggest problem is lack of proper editing. Especially when it is self-published. My cousin wrote a fantasy novel and she clearly did not have it edited by anyone. It really showed. Maybe just because I was an editor, but it annoys me when, as you said, the author uses the same words over and over again. Or when the first nine chapters are full of useless nonsense before the author gets to the actual story. For instance, my cousin's novel had the protagonist shower over twenty times in just one book. Not a joke. And it really had nothing to do with the story, it was just filler. I agree with all the points you made, but lack of editing is definitely my least favorite thing in modern writing.

My creative writing teacher in college HATED fantasy and anything that couldn't have plausibly happened in real life. It made my grade suffer because I am exclusively a fantasy writer. I wouldn't have signed up for her class had I of known that I'd be docked points on my creative writing homework for "being unrealistic"...

I absolutely hate stories where the main character/characters never have their morality put into question or challenged in any meaningful way. It's even worse when the authors write a hypocrite that lacks any moral sturdiness but still play that character as if they are in the right. Even more so when said character moralizes to other characters that do the exact same thing, but the author paints them as the bad guy/girl/men/lady.

When you read a 14 book series that’s supposed to be all about some reborn dragon, yet there isn’t a single dragon in it except on some dumb farm boy’s arms. :(

I picked up “Unnatural Magic” by CM Waggoner because it had a female troll as one of the two POVs. Like there’s hardly any fantasy stories nowadays where the central character is not human or mostly humanoid. Sure, fairies kinda count, but it’s been overdone and they are basically insanely hot models with pointy ears. We need more creatures as main characters!

I'm just tired of the torture porn.

I think my main gripe against the modern fantasy is the over use of the "___ was the best thief" or "___ wanted to be the greatest assassin". Roguedark I would call it

The one thing I've always adored about Tolkien's books is the fact that the world feels like it's alive. Like he'll spend pages talking about Ents and Entwives, but he'll give us nothing about why Galadriel giving Gimli some of her hair was such a big deal. He treats that like as if it's common knowledge, but that the whole Ents isn't. That sort of thing makes his world feel alive when you compare it some modern day fantasy books. Like for example, the Hunger Games comes across as a very empty world unless the characters are directly interacting with it.

You know what i would like to see more: Mediterranean settings for fantasy. I am tired of "tavern tolkien d&d" like northern Europe fantasy stories, and would love to see more new mythological creatures trend, rather than dwarves, elves or dragons...