I've explored that area by bike a bit, and travelled the NLL to North
Woolwich last summer. It is indeed peculiar.

However whilst some bits might feel like their forgotten, travel a
short distance and you'll find that regeneration is in full swing. The
massive Excel conference centre & exhibition hall complex, the ever
more popular London City Airport, the DLR extension, the large retail
park off the North Circular on part of the site of the old Beckton gas
works (as used in Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket), the Docklands campus of
the University of East London and various other completed and in
progress housing and office developments around the Royal Docks. Apart
from Excel, much of this isn't apparent from the window of an NLL
train!

Whether or not the said regeneration benefits locals, however, would be
to delve into a classic thorny question of the rebirth of the Docklands.