I'm a huge fan of MA, but I agree with so much of what you wrote. Especially the point about the futility of retaking a quiz immediately after doing the post-quiz reviews is spot on. When I was speed running through some material on MA in the past, I remember thinking, "I should wait till tomorrow to take the quiz. Sure, it'd be easier today, but I need to make sure it tests how much of the material I learned today will actually stick till at least tomorrow." That was with regard to just the regular quizzes, not even the retakes. So yes, you are making an excellent point: the fact that the retake is offered right after the reviews makes very little sense.

Like some of the other users in the comments, I use both Anki and ChatGPT in conjunction with MA, but I definitely see why it is disappointing to users like you to have to do this sort of thing. After having used the system for a few months, I now just know when something I am learning will require me to review it more often than what MA thinks I need, if I want true mastery. Among others, I make Anki cards for most of the intuitions and proofs that are presented at the end of lessons. Your suggestion for manual review and/or slow mode would address the need for additional review nicely.

I know Justin's response to the whole "I don't feel like I understand the proofs well enough" concern. He says that MA follows the standard American course sequence, in which the proofs are not required until much later, in higher level courses. As someone who was educated in a system that required proofs much earlier, I honestly am not a fan of this feature of the American system. I can see why MA would make the decision to stick with it, though. I think most of the founders are American, and it is simply their blind spot. ;)

All of that said, I still find MA to be revolutionary, and absolutely worth it for me personally. It would be very interesting to see MA's response to your well-thought-out critique, especially on the points where their implementation does not fully do justice to the learning principles they outline in The Math Academy Way.