The whole point of the 1.5 prequest is so you can skip the 1.0. However, the Shaman 1.5 pre-quest requires Black Fur Boots which you can not get without first raising Truespirit faction which.... can only be raised by doing the 1.0. For about 15 years we've been able to repeat turn-in the gem given by spirit after killing peg leg in Butcher Block to the NPC in West Freeport. Why was this suddenly nerfed? Also, I was booted to desktop after turning in the Tiny Gem and when I came back I was unable to go through Bondl's dialogue. Which effectively means, I'm stuck at the initial stage of the epic because we can no longer turn in multiple gems so now even if I want to do the 1.0 I can't...
I can name about 10000000000 things in this game that ACTUALLY need fixing, not some 18 year old quest that has been trivial for over a decade. Also, it doesn't address the fact that the 1.5 pre-quest exists to circumvent having to do the 1.0 yet you can't do it in this case.
The 1.5 pre-quest not granting you appropriate faction is a bug. I'd guess it needs fixing but won't be a high priority. The bug they fixed was a bug... silly IMO to fix it after so long but just like with illusioning through a door, it was unintended. I agree they should try to better prioritize what they're working on. Some of these "fixes" seem random and arbitrary. You might want to submit a bug report about the faction issue.
