Oh, that's a really relevant point you know. I find myself a huge fan of both Liu and Taylor, while finding Hickman largely distasteful. I definitely prize character work over themes and "big ideas". Not that I don't like world-building or esoteric meaning in my comic, but it's nothing to me if I don't care about the individual characters that live in that world and feel invested in them. Liu and Taylor have a knack for showing the humanity even in characters with darkness in them.
It has been a long and not exceptionally enjoyable transition for me into HiX-Men. Putting Laura in the Vault for a year after the cringeworthy Fallen Angels mini was just depressing after shunting my other favorite characters off to be wallpaper in Excalibur. Glad Gabby's finally getting love in New Mutants at least, though I hate that nobody seems to care that Laura has been gone. Hopefully she can land somewhere impactful after her return here and with a writer that loves her.