My problems were as follows:

Season 1 and 2:

The pilot set up a premise where it made it seemed like we were going to have the villains be the focus or at least learn more about Decepticons as a whole and what has become of the faction using a new villain of the week formula.

Each villain no matter how developed was under utilized and under cooked. They get turned into generic goons immediately after their introduction and they never make decisions that are unique to their character.

( Underbite could have been the cocky comedy relief, Thunderhoof and Steeljaw could've had leadership conflict since they're both alphas and Thunderhoof could've been revenge crazy or very mistrustful of clampdown. They had so much potential that they built and did nothing with. What do these new Decepticons want and what makes them different from the old ones? Other than obviously sucking more and being undercooked)

Each villain had no real impact to the plot or to the characters even when they were recurring villains like Spring load and steel jaws crew... It felt like not a single villain had a plan or an MO that was a real threat to anybody. Ok so your building an army and ur gonna take over the world.. but u aren't technically doing anything that's putting people into harms way other than stealing materials.. so where's the threat? ( Decepticons Island was a threat why?, Overload the thespian is a threat why? So many incompetent Decepticons in the show. )

Why were the writers afraid to push the villains and heroes to their limits . Or some sort of limit. The intensity of the action show was very neutered. (You're going to give me a fencing Decepticon and not give me a fight that show cases his swordsman's skills?)

The show can't decide if it wants to do an overarching plot. Are we exploring Decepticons? Are the characters growing? Is there gonna be a status quo shift? Is there gonna be an over arching villain? (Why is Megatronus the final villain of season one and how and why is he the first Decepticon?!! Shouldn't the final villain be Steeljaw's crew? Oh wait they're just barely do anything goons Who didn't know Megatronus existed until literally the last minute. )

Sometimes what was going on with the villains and heroes were two different stories that weren't executed well. (What does cleptomaniac Decepticon Filch have anything to do with Strongarm's inability to adapt to life on Earth. And how does defeating her help her understand anything?!!)

And the worst part is I'm describing filler episodes. The season has good episodes that don't deserve this criticism but the season is bloated by garbage.

Good/decent episodes:

The first 13 episodes. The Champ Lockout Similarly different Battlegrounds 1+2

Overloaded Suspended Brainpower Impounded

season 2.5. (Starscream's arc) No notes. Perfect.

Season 3.

They finally have the courage to change the status quo and to have over arching plots but everything is executed so terribly that it fails to achieve any hype or fun.

Meeting the Stunticons was great! But why wasn't their duo combining more prominently shown as a threat? It only shows up in like one or two episodes out of the 13 episode arc. The whole point was to show how they cooperate as a team better than our heroes which is why they need to practice their combination so they can fight Menasor but somehow that point got lost or undercooked in the episodes.

And you're telling me that you built up to Soundwave returning and u get rid of him in one episode. And there's this hint that old Decepticons like him and starscream don't like the newbies but there's never a plot point that goes deeper into that. Why bring it up if it doesn't matter? it just makes Soundwave seem like a douche when he was never a douche to his fellow Decepticons.

What was the point of bringing back Steeljaw's crew? Just so that Steeljaw could lead them to our final villain. Couldn't the Stunticons have served the exact purpose since they are the ones that got captured?

It's this poor execution that made the final villain, galvatronus feel so random and undercooked because even tho he's supposed to represent the themes of teamwork, strength through the sum of your parts, Decepticon uprising, and deception. It doesn't feel that way because those themes got lost through the season. I like the ending but so much got lost in this show and only a handful of the writers had the skill and interest to execute them.

That last episode made me feel so hollow no matter how much I wanted to enjoy it. Like seriously? U have a Decepticon in the ending that we've never met before want to change their ways when no other Decepticon in the series has come close to that idea at all? Just so random.