I liked this season (Season 24) a lot. I haven’t seen much downside.
Concerning some of the complaints:
o “Ethereals are only weapons, and only spawn with weapon/offhand powers.”
I don’t see why this is inherently a problem.
o “they disappear after season ends”
Well, they are season buffs. All season buffs end after the season ends. If you’re saying you don’t like seasonal buffs, OK… but a lot of people like seasons, including me.
o “they don’t unlock any transmogs UNLESS you find all 21 ethereals in the game”
I didn’t play this season for the transmorgs, so this is not a problem for me. I do agree that getting the transmorgs is quite challenging, and I wasn’t up to that myself. I give props to the folks who accepted the challenge even if I didn’t.
o "they don’t include set weapon bonuses like the “Slanderer/Little Rogue” or “Flail of the Charge”
This is a legit complaint, ethereals don’t work with two- or three-piece sets that use a weapon. I still think that the benefit to the game from having ethereals outweighs the loss of not using certain sets.
o “most of them don’t even look like their item icons. And others like Khalim’s Will are copy/pastes of existing D3 items”
I find this to be a trivial complaint. The art for the weapons is not a big deal, and if one doesn’t like it, a transport can be used.
o Ethereals “mostly benefit the Necromancer”
I used them with my Witch Doctor and enjoyed it a lot.
o “Ethereals make a tedious season journey even more tedious, making a lot of players either quit the season early or skip it completely”
I can only speak for myself, but I liked the Ethereals and this season. It is more of a hassle to get these pieces, but their drop rate was OK enough that you would get them with moderate playing time, I believe.
There have been other season buffs involving changes in gameplay that were more tedious than this. I liked this item-based buff.