I just generally dislike that beyond a point they weren't really addressing clunky design, but just removing all form of fail states from the game, and beyond a point they weren't really addressing feedback but reducing the game into the most formulaic design humanly possible.

We have so many systems in the game which serve no purpose at all... Their prime method of feedback has been to remove or fade into obscurity, rather than actually trying to improve... This is why we have such a rigid system now.

It isn't just that jobs have no identity... I am genuinely asking myself have of the time where more fundamental identities are, e.g., gameplay features and systems having no identity, but just there to tick off a 'Y' with conditional formatting on an Excel spreadsheet.

The best way of putting it is... They aren't really designing the game around the people that consuming it, and nor are they thinking very much of the people that do consume it... They are designing the game around an Excel spreadsheet, and it shows.

Sad thing is... People do think some of these issues are new... But in fact many of the underlying problems date back as early as HW - e.g., removing systems rather than improving.