I don't think it would ever "work" for Minecraft to attempt something like one of the big mods. Even "Better Than Wolves" which most people have been exposed to

I don't think it would ever "work" for Minecraft to attempt something like one of the big mods. Even "Better Than Wolves" which most people have been exposed to via packs with a later, richer "Better With Mods" is sort of giving the game away. Yes, the things "Better Than Wolves" did are better than what Minecraft itself delivered in that timeframe (Wolves, duh) but often what Minecraft's devs are doing is fundamental, infrastructure work. Mojang and then Microsoft make two kinds of ore, and then add a third, boring - but modders couldn't have added six hundred more kinds of ore without that. The built-in biomes are fine but they're not as radical as anything modders have done - but modders couldn't have added new biomes without that infrastructure. I think Mojang and Microsoft have been very good at sketching in new ideas, enriching the concept rather than refining all the details. They've also been good, because it's easier for a corporation, at completion. Anybody still waiting for Jaded's Agrarian Skies 2 ? How about for a meaningful end to Twilight Forest ? Modern packs tend to play the non-ending of Twilight Forest as if that's normal - gating further progress on the Magic Lamp for example, or just putting everything after the Trolls as optional - but wandering around the final castle it's obvious this just isn't finished. I play almost exclusively modded, mostly ascend-to-godhood type packs, and it's still very noticeable how different a modern pack is (based on modern Minecraft) than the 1.7 era packs we started out playing, because the base game is significantly better.