I’ve noticed the big Atlantic storms rarely regain a western component to thier motion once it is lost. The trend seems to be to lose western motion and gain northern motion. Cuba is going to get hit hard.
Stronger storms like to go poleward, and most end up doing so at some point. The reason this may not go due north or further east before landfall is because there is now a strong high pressure building into the mid-atlantic into midwest area. This location for the high pressure would tend to slow true northward progress and lead the storm to round the periphery of the high.