It's quite interesting how Minecraft has changed over the years, and I recall over 10 years back (damn, MC has been out for over 10 years?) there were no villages, health bars, or hunger. Kinda cool to see its evolution, but at the same time I wonder when MC can be considered to be "finished".
Let's see what kinda cool contraptions/buildings you're gonna make!
This world is more about the surviving rather than the cool creations. 😅 So far my track record for Hardcore Minecraft is: go to nether, fall down sudden, unexpected hole 2000ft to my doom. 🤣
I don't really think Minecraft will ever be considered finished. There's always something to add. The next one is The Wild and will introduce a new dark biome with cities, another type of swamp with new plants and animals, and some general new thingies.
What I'd personally like is something to do with the ocean! They've added ocean biomes with seaweed forests and shipwrecks and underwater temples and things, but just something simple like sharks or something would be cool. 😁
But survival may necessitate the use of automation 😉 Perhaps not "cool" in the sense that they look great design-wise, but maybe you'll end up building a fully automated system for harvesting meat/ores/smelting.
Sharks might be a mighty cool addition; perhaps some modders have already done it! Would make ocean exploration riskier (and thus more rewarding).