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@Illikaal already put to words most of what I was going to say, but I'll chime in with my perspective.

I personally feel this was all a long time coming. Even back from when we only had the subrace duamvi, there were hints that Dendara wasn't a huge fan BUT it was overshadowed by the fact that the Plane was massively askew on a cosmic level and thus, Shadow was far more of a threat/problem - i.e. it was much more likely that any further influx of Shadow could snowball it into a point of no return. At this point, Spirit was the lesser evil, and could even be viewed as a prescription/counter-agent to the 'too much Shadow' problem.

That is the RP answer, but I am also firmly of the belief that Dendara was left this way from a storytelling standpoint to prop up the tether-based mindset of being Spirit aligned. With Varian correcting this imbalance, and placing the Plane of Life where it should have been all along (centrally balanced on the Spiral), it - among with an array of other, smaller storytelling hooks - effectively removes this.

As a long-time Duiran player, I've watched it struggle with maintaining an identity that doesn't have the baggage of "well, we can't do X because what would Enorian think" automatically appended. I've seen countless characters join Duiran for reasons like the following:

It's like Enorian, but with trees
I'm Spirit tether, but Enorian won't have me
It has less obnoxious laws and more freedom than Enorian

... and so on.

None of those reasons are inherently bad, but they definitely aren't as meaningful from the perspective of joining Duiran for what it stands for, what it means, or what its cultural identity is. The comparison isn't perfect, but that's how you get things like a subfaction in Bloodloch trying to push for being anti-slavery when it's clearly not a sustainable path for that city.

Does it mean that Duiran and Enorian now have to hate each other? Of course not. What it DOES do is unshackle them from each other, and enable more nuanced and dynamic storytelling/roleplay. Personally, I would be over the moon if this meant the Diplomacy system would get more actual use out of it - there hasn't been much of a need for it when everyone assumes Duinorian will automatically link up, or Spines/BL will always be on the same team.

We're seeing more rifts between all four cities, NOT because we're all supposed to hate each other all of a sudden, but because every city should have a reason for existing beyond being "the feral cousins of Enorian who have drugs" or "the science nerds who help Bloodloch with math".

I think we are all very used to fudging the RP a bit in order to prop up mechanics that otherwise wouldn't make a whole lot of sense, so it's going to be uncomfortable a bit for some. It's going to mean fewer absolutes and more intricately-woven stories, and I'm here for it.

Personally a huge fan, though I can understand why it's hard for others.

But if I never have to hear the term "association laws" ever again, it will be too soon.

No, it's the genuine solution for a Duiranite who wants to play an Akkari. You quit Duiran and go to Enorian (or be Cityless). I don't think "ignore vital organizational Roleplay for the convenience of having access to one class" is a really good stance to have. If Duiran were going to do that, they'd have just as much reason to start letting vampires be citizens of the city as well. It doesn't make any sense.

All really fat facts. I'm also chiming in here as the head of the Duiran guild that probably is the most affected/has the strongest reason. Duiran at large has embraced Dia'ruis and the Guardians now, which is a great a thing, but the Shamans are still the ones who have the deepest connection and are still the 'keepers' of the plane. That said, due to the rejection of Duamvi by the plane of Dia'ruis itself (because they are the very same imbalance the Cycle doesn't like, just the opposite end of the spectrum) we have banned any and all Shaman apprenticeships to them. My character has even been going so far as to ask Akkari that he knows have Shaman training to drop it due to this change (although mechanicially I obviously cannot make them do this.) We are even super strict on who in Enorian gets apprenticed, as they can just learn the class and become Duamvi after.

All that said the player in me is slightly disappointed that I couldn't the ultimate Reclamation partner class, but I'm still fully okay with Duiran having the individual identity that is has, and that the other cities are also developing them. I'm also okay with the roleplay attached to the class that will prevent me from ever having it, regardless of me wanting it.

The spirit of mirrors was to vastly open up access to class mechanics while also making balancing stuff easier; I don't think it is to make it a guarantee that everyone no matter what will be accommodated by org RP to play said class. There's at least two mirrors I haven't grabbed because the RP didn't fit Tetchta. I was looking forward to them mechanically, but it just didn't work for a number of reasons, so I didn't get them.

But I also think it's worth pointing out that Prenomen was always going to be a special case. It's a weird class tied to a subrace. There's been attempts (they have all failed, for good or ill) to separate them, but this is clearly not something the admin envision, or want to go through the work to do (not said as a slight, it's a tall ask with tons of rp and rewrites required). This is probably the only class that's gonna be like this, and I think you're gonna just have to get over it with Bennet Foddy.