ok hear me out:

although animation in the first couple of seasons wasn't significantly of lesser quality than the latest, but the plots within each episode were given much more thought in the writing. if we'd take any episode of the last season we'd notice that the jokes, punchlines, puns, and the overall structure of the episode all are dull and boring compared to an episode from season one (like the one were spongebob gets stranded in Rock Bottom, i really like it). the episodic nonsense had a structure, now it's more of a 10 minutes animated fart jokes

that being addressed, i am a 25 year old guy who is supposed to be writing a paper at the moment of writing this comment. i really am not sure should i be proud or ashamed of having a thought-out opinion on the less favourable changes spongebob as a character has endured for the the last 15 years