absolutely no I do not think it's like the shadowfell an alternative version of reality ... this is not Wow where we are in the EmeralDream and so it's all an alternative version of reality (in positive).
Making a mappaspeculare of the king forest I see a bit of a "madness" in quotes ... unless I revamp the area a bit and add guides as they did for Ravenloft, then I would agree, but I would have preferred something similar to the penultimate pack "Duels in the Undedark" where wax a single Hub with inputs to the quests ... I imagined something of that kind.
Satyrs, Dryads, Hags, Pseudodragons, Will-o-wisp, sentient plants, there are already ok but creatures like Pixie and Sprite have never been in DDO, except in a small part of Party Crasher but they were one of those creatures that in DDO it was not very thorough according to me.
The Dragons then are a different thing from the Pseudo dragons, I would not mind to have them as a cosmetic pet even the Pixie and Sprite, I would pay 500-600 points DDO to have one of them that follows me ... apart from those rare cases in general, DDO's pets do not inspire me much, except bears, bears-owls, and wolves, the rest does not convince me at all.
For me the most difficult art and even if you intend to create a mirror version of KingForest and Evening Star, the King Forest and an area too big to be able to re-sell, this implies additional costs that are then added with the addition of new quests and the development of the storyline.
PS: even if I agree with tea on the plot this in part for many and very subjective, most of the first players keep the audio of the DM turned off then do not even read the dialogue of the quests without understanding the story, so many a well-structured story does not interest much, just give him something more to farm to stay in the game.
Personally I love the plot of Ravenloft I think it is well structured and there is a good progression in history, I hope they do a similar job for future packs.