Can't really see the point of the new island, just a distraction or (being cynical) a ploy to lure the gullible into more micro transactions.
The one update I would like to see (which has gone into Dominations) is a listing of available upgrades in "cost" (gold/elixir) order, to avoid having to randomly go round trying to find what needs updating.
They do have something similar when you click the builder icon at the top.