One thing that comes up a lot when thinking about what is off about SL is that the AP grind is as bad as ever. I've been guilty thinking that myself. But the AP of Legion/BfA is nearly gone; Anima gives no player power beyond the catchup covenant armor upgrades. It is instead very similar to resources.
I think a lot of people are happy to see the AP grind gone, but initially in SL it felt like it was just replaced by anima, and I think that's because you needed to grind 1k anima every week to keep up with Renown. Now that "catchup" renown is fully in force, ie the two weekly quests are just two of many ways to get renown, we can see that Anima has close to zero effect on player power. It is now an expanded version of resources that gives you base upgrades, but also mounts and cosmetics.
But maybe AP didn't go completely away? There *is* a grindable currency that has a direct effect on player power: Soul Ash. Grinding Torghast for Soul Ash is very comparable to grinding Expeditions for Azerite; an actually necessary chore that you're "forced" to do. Soul Ash is at the very least a much lesser grind than AP, as there's a "soft cap" of 5150 to max out your best legendary, which is about 10 runs on layer 8 for any alts you want to get up to speed.
I think the discussion about the pros and cons of SL can be clarified a lot by recognizing Soul Ash as the new AP, and Anima as the new garrison resources.