Tales before ramping up Darkening? Why not concurrent?

I just reread Darkening and I confess I’m less enamored with it now. I initially thought it was pretty much The Great Pendragon Campaign. That framework worked well for us because we always had new input about the lives of the knights and time to act on those inputs, and then specific orders from a patron they were obligated to deal with. Campaign and sandbox intermingled really nicely. I’m not seeing any of the elements that made GPC work present in Darkening: no patron, no obligations, no procedurally generated inputs to keep things moving through time. Instead, it’s like…if you just happen to be near southern Mirkwood, you get to meet some new asshole.

Honestly I’m unimpressed now. I might refer to big picture events from year to year because I do like the shape of the future history (the return of the nazghul and all that).