The Desert in BDO is an interesting and unique environment/mechanic, that separates BDO from other games. It used to be endgame when it first released and people generally enjoyed it.

Unfortunately nowadays it's dead content. Since the Valencia update, every single expansion has been in the West, i.e. on the other side of the map. Star's End, Kamasylvia, Odyllita, Drieghan, Mountain of Eternal Winter, Land of Morning Light... The East in BDO has been entirely forgotten. Some people do the Valencia I storyline, but most people skip Valencia II and move to the West. Unless you are grinding treasure pieces, there is zero point to go back to Valencia. Any other spot on the main content provides better content/silver.

The main problem with the Desert and Valencia is that they are completely out of the way. One needs to travel very far to get there, and there is nothing else happening there. No unique buffs, resources etc (except compass and map). Everything that can be done in Valencia is best done elsewhere, even the treasure pieces, which can be hunted in western environments during the treasure hunt event.

The Alyaelli expansion has a chance to revisit this area, buff it, introduce more lore, and more things to do. Unique lifeskill or grinding areas, something... At present it's dead content and it's really a shame.

The desert content is pretty much the start of the downfall in terms of density. It has a lot of really good grind spots, a lot of lore, Valencia is a majestic city. While they could start adding events related to whatever Illezra's brewing and make it even more interesting indeed. I'd rather they enrich some of the latest content with the cut content (I mean, did you look at the Mountain of Eternal Winter? Eilton has as many buildings shacks as Glish does. Everyone's on the streets - if you can call them streets. A lot of trees and a lot of npcs spread there to not say the region is just some forest. Did you look at O'draxxia? Same issue: a lot of walls, but very few functional houses. Very few grind spots (with a looooooooooooot of empty space inbetween). Along with Drieghan and Eternal Winter, neither has any satellite cities. 

Everything past Kamasylvia is... rushed content. If you compare the quests, mob types, cities, infrastructure, anything, really, between, say, Calpheon or Serendia to Valencia and then to the new content, you'll notice it. Fast. So I would rather I don't see another empty region added to the game, but instead, improvements in the existing ones first. Drieghan could use some love, O'dyllita could definitely use some love and Eternal Winter? Pffft! This last one is a god damn ruin!