Yup, the UAE Tour's dull route is kind of brought home when a 2.2 race that uses the same terrain includes these stages:
I don't mind them not doing Al-Suhub as three MTFs would be too much for a one week race, but at the same time being around 6km at 8,5% it's a different kind of climber's terrain than the long tempo grinders of Jebel Hafeet and Jebel Jais. Also Jebel Hafeet is the tougher climb I believe, so might be better to put them the other way round, although at this time of the season it's probably less significant as it's still prep race territory. If they decide that the Wadi al-Hilo finish is too out of the way for a WT race they could always just make a circuit with that 3km at 7,3% climb and finish in Fujairah, the only one of the Emirates which is based on the east coast.
It's not like these stages would be super decisive or I'm asking them to put a Liège-Bastogne-Liège clone out there. Just that a route with two sprints, an ITT, the Hatta Dam not-quite-sprinter-not-quite-puncheur finish, a hilly stage around Fujairah or Wadi al-Hilo and two out of the three mountaintop finishes available (the two in the real race and the one in the Tour of Sharjah) would be a much more varied and interesting race, and without doing much that would make it too difficult for its role as a February prep race. We're only talking about adding a couple of climbs which are realistically cat.3 by most Euro races' standards to vary things a bit.
Just as how the Tour Down Under hasn't really made itself that much
harder in recent years, but by better placement of the obstacles it has at its disposal it has made itself far
better.