I guess this ended up being a semi-rant. my bad, but it's not directed towards you.
There is room for those type of packs...in the 3rd party section. If blanket statements had not been made by the FTB team, I'd be hopeful for a Horizon's type pack. From what I've read, 3rd party is where non-FTB team, non-focused, non-theme packs will be going.
Is this change of tack what the majority of people want, though? That is the big question that should be asked from the FTB team that I have not yet seen. So far I've just seen blanket statements about what will be released, akin to "Hey, this is what we're putting out. If you don't like it, kick rocks, homie."
I played Agrarian Skies. I played Crash Landing. They're cool packs, but personally they lose my interest at right about the time the quests are complete, because after that point it becomes modded Minecraft but with a bunch of ridiculous hoops to hop through because no world (in the case of AS). Sorry, but I personally have zero interest in pigeon holing myself into another pack where progression is flipping linear on a quest book in a sandbox game. There is something that feels wrong about that, and I can't be the only person that feels this way.
inb4 it's-a-free-service...Maybe, but have you bought any merch?