Oh boy, now this I feel pretty passionately about...
I really do wish Riot gave more attention of this region and shared more facts about it. Like a video, similar to the ones they did on Ionia and Targon. Heck, even a story specific to the region that introduces us to its daily life and culture, like how "Progress Day" did for Piltover or "City of Iron and Glass" did for Zaun.
A couple of vague facts and pictures, plus a short color story and two bios taking place there (one of them being like, 3 sentences long) is sadly abysmal. And I think it contributed to Ixtal being a lackluster and underwhelming reveal despite them being a whole new region for the longest time in League's history. It's a pretty big deal! Yet it barely got anything!
I'm so disappointed with this especially because Ixtal sounds like such a cool region and I would love to know more about it! I would absolutely love to see their culture, their way of living, their religions or spiritual beliefs, their systems of controlling the elements, their government and politics, their conflict with Piltover (which is maddeningly watered down and simplified and I am honestly pissed how underused and underexplored this subplot is right now), the fact that they're home to Malphite and the DRAGONS (!!!!!), the rules of elemental magic itself! There's so many things that could be explored in a new region such as Ixtal, and it makes me so sad thinking about it.
To be honest, I'm not too mad about the metal-people idea being scrapped - I'm fine with Ixtal how it is - but if they did go with it, I wouldn't have complained at all! It's a pretty creative idea, and it definitely would have helped Qiyana have more of a memorable character design.