Aesthetics are hit and miss. Love Seitung, would gladly get rid of jade tech, especially on the buildings. Seriously, glowing green on a traditional architecture is just wrong.
I was doing achievement hunting couple of days ago and was actually pleasantly surprised by events. They were actually interesting and fun, provided they are not bugged. I'm talking about Seitung and Echovald events, not NKC - sorry, but Brotherhood ones were just boring. Also voice acting of idle NPCs remains top-notch, if that's your thing.
Regarding meta... Yeah, DE needs a nerf, NKC is meh, I personally like Seitung and Echovald (only the junkyard bosses).
Turtle is okay for Drizzlewood farm, strikes are fun if you learn mechanics (but only three easy ones), jadebot is good for farming materials and gliding (but cores are for a character, not for whole account).