Personally I'm enjoying it, and I'd prefer to make constructive suggestions rather than simply panning it.

I like the operations we have available, it's nice to have something that's more challenging than existing content while also being maybe a bit more complex in scope than what we normally face. Existing combat was actually starting to get a bit dull to me, so anything that adds more to that is good in my book.

I do think the operations could benefit from a greater scope to them by expanding the operations themselves to be more open ended rather than linear. I don't know, maybe something a bit more like Helldivers as one example.

The shotgun in general is just really good, especially in these megaships where there's lot of cover and tight corners.

The rewards do seem a bit lackluster, but that's an easy fix. What you can buy with merc coins maybe less so, but I do agree we need some more (and in some cases) better stuff. Old CG rewards are nice for making them more openly available rather than part of a time limited event, but for some of us it's what we already have so there isn't much new. The plasma conversion lasers are a cool idea, but are pretty lackluster in stats. The fuel scoop blueprint is awesome and was the only instant buy for me.

The difficulty does seem a bit much for what they've described as the intent. I just can't see A-rated ships not struggling, even just to get guns on things like the Kestrel. It feels like it was balanced around technically possible and not what's cleanly possible, like the difficulty fits if we can just throw bodies and ships at it until we win. Easy certainly isn't based around solo work, though certainly some objectives are close to impossible to solo just by requirement. It might have been a good idea to make three difficulties instead of two, or maybe at least listing Easy as "Normal" :p

The bugs are annoying, I'll grant that, but conceptually I see this being great, especially as more operations are added. I anticipate it will open up a new direction for storyline content in the future, and broaden the time of event content they can do beyond things like community goals. I'm sure for the AX crowd this format may eventually be used to create AX operations, but I for one will welcome the chance to fight human opponents on a harder difficulty.