I was never really a fan of JD, and Kait is the clear main character when Marcus isn’t on screen. I don’t think she really evolved, though. JD just becomes more unbearable, which doesn’t help his case.
If anything, i think Gears 6 should take a fresh start from a new character’s standpoint… Or more specifically, i think we should be allowed to create and customize our own characters, and use THEM in the main story mode, interacting with all of the known Gears characters.
Probably an unpopular opinion, but hey…