I think I need to correct myself. I was being hasty to reply and didn't read the conversation throroughly. It's my bad for wasting your time with this. I'll still try to explain my point of view:
The thing with Vampire vs Scholar is, Vampire is complex, and Scholar is simple. You did Vampire before Scholar. So to me this means you didn't do Vampire because you ran out of simple options, as later there were still simple options left.
Sticking with the toothpaste comparison, I agree, of course you can't squeeze infinite amounts of toothpaste out of that thing. What I'm saying is that there's still plenty of toothpaste inside. That toothpaste isn't Smithy levels of simplicity, and it's not like I (or anybody else) wants new cards to be base levels of complexity. But every time you introduce a new submechanic, like Villagers, VP tokens, Durations, Reserves, Events, etc, you can do a bunch of things with them without each individual card being overly complex, and there's still plenty such mechanics in the tube.
I did Vampire to do a card called Vampire. I was obv. not paying attention to complexity there and should have been. One of the things Renaissance does to be simpler is, it has really dull flavor. There was no point at which I thought, "how can I make this more like a Scholar."
There are two kinds of simple cards in Renaissance. There are cards with no new mechanics (yes counting Coffers as new), like Scholar. And then there are the ones with new mechanics, like Silk Merchant.
Silk Merchant requires a bunch of rules. They are in the rulebook instead of on the card, but they're still there, you still have to learn them. If we put them on the card it would be a mess.
It's this big trick, that you can hide rules in the rulebook, and act like you have something simpler. You do actually have something simpler, in that, you only learn what Villagers are once, and then know what they are for several cards that use them. Six cards with villagers is simpler than six cards with different mechanics. But still, that first card is actually more complex than if it were just loaded up with text explaining the ability; it's that, plus you also have to pick up the rulebook.
It's no coincidence that Renaissance, trying to be simpler, has these rulebook mechanics. Look how sleek and pretty Silk Merchant is. And Villagers and Coffers are two very easy to learn things, they are some of the simplest possible things tokens could mean in Dominion. As these basic things get used up, the rulebook mechanics get less easy to learn, and worse in all other respects too; a classic thing is just, Dominion doesn't give you much to hang effects on, when you want something to be relevant in nearly every game with it. I mean the same logic that says that you run out of simple things to do, extends to stuff that refers you to the rulebook; it just feels like you can get way more complex there because you've hidden the rules. But, the point here is, yes, I leaned on tokens to try to have a simpler set. And that's the big thing you can do to keep making expansions: add rulebook text and components.
But I don't think it's good to have Dominion expansions where every card sends you to the rulebook. The sets need non-rulebook cards too. And you run out of simple things to do there.
