I hated the Azerite traits unlocking with neck level (since if a Mythic version of a HC azerite item dropped it could be a downgrade for a week or more) but liked the thing with Essences since the Minor slots were a pretty beefy upgrade. So while the start wasn't as good, 8.2 made it better (still some shitty methods to obtain them, would prefer to see better sources from some, maybe even have each profession be able to craft one)