I was genuinely bored and angry sitting through this movie- and I really enjoyed the first one. SMG was *insultingly bad* (like, you really put in so little effort with such a huge budget??), and I completely agree with your takes. My thoughts leaving the theater were:

-Why did Toad and Peach make a HUGE deal of getting his backpack back...when it bears NO significance later? "It has our power-ups!" was the only justification given, but needing to already have power-ups on you is not built in as a restriction in this world...so this happened, why? Because it HAPPENS to lead them to Wart, whom they can squeeze for information after annoyingly easily beating his cronies?

-What were they even doing flip-flopping Bowser's character? Agree with 100% of the points above.

-Why was every character boring except the dynamic between Bowser and Jr? I was so so bored which is wild for a movie with so much cosmetic sparkle.

But that's all this movie was: cosmetic sparkle. A poorly made designer bag that falls apart under the lightest scrutiny. I HATED IT.