a16.4, had the best skill system vanilla has ever had, and allowed the player alot of freedom in what they could do as it was much more sandbox like compared to a17 and especially 1.0. 1.0 is extremly limiting and easly the worse state the game has been in compared to a16.4, I also don't think it will get any better as the game needs the biomes and entire item system redone to have proper progression as they cannot achieve it currently when 99% of items in the game can be made without leaving the forest. Only item you need to leave the forest for is Oil shale to make Gas with, well that and Oil but wrenching cars usually gets you more oil than you'll ever use. The rwg sucks in 1.0 as well, its fast, but its pretty much a static map as every map is essentally the same, they removed most of the random part of random world gen. Yes you can mod it, but thats not a excuse for TFP to gimp it this hard.
I don't think the game is ever going to get back the glory it had in a16.4, its been on a downward spiral for years. The graphics updates are nice, but that is not what the game needsm it needs more tiers of items, better progression etc. Most survival games have each biome have its own tier of gear and challenges to explore it. 7DTD however does not, you can make every item except 2 without leaving the forest, so there just is no reason to bother and with how bad loot is, going to the winter biome is just not worth it to fight far harder enemies for the same loot most of the time you'd get in the forest.