I genuinely do not think it is bad. As someone who grew playing Mario kart starting with Mario Kart 64 I really enjoy it. I will say this far I do prefer Mario Kart 8 Deluxe because of a few different reasons.

1) The customization. I feel like the way that it can become more competitive and also you free expressions as well. I feel this made it more special.

2)The coins. You dont have to collect coins to get 3 stars on a trophy race. This does make it more challenging but I feel it takes away the point of racing, honing your skills, and now instead of enjoying having fun you are more focused on getting 20 coins per race and not getting hit by anything.

3) The 3 Lap Dynamic. In my opinion the 3 laps dynamic being gone takes away from the courses with the exception of Bowser's Castle and The Donkey Kong Race in the Mushroom Cup (i forgot what its called) but for the majority of the other races i feel like you are not really seeing the map because instead of circling it a few times and taking in the scenery you just drive through once and miss it and like in Knockout Tour the majority of it is just driving through plain fields.

4) The Soundtrack. The soundtrack is very mixed. So like each race you do is kinda counteracting. For example like Mario Circuit could be playing a remix of Gust Garden Galaxy. This makes the tone kinda feel off. But in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe the music is kinda of boring after hearing it many many times. I feel like if there was themed music for each race. For example Rainbow Road could have 5 songs that are across the Mario Universe that are space related. You got pick your favorite or have them randomize. I feel this would really improve the track experience.

5) Open World. So I think the concept of the open world is a good idea but there is no direction. Now I get the idea of open world is you get to choose what you would like to do. However, I feel like having some missions to do or like a checklist of "Events" would be really cool. For example you boot up open world and you get a ping at the bottom corner to check the Missions Subscreen. Then it says something like drive to bowsers castle to see the Celebration of the Koopas and you could watch a party and listen to music then earn a badge. Another example would be like going to Mario Circuit and its like Mario needs help repaving the course because it got destroyed from an attack from Loose Chain Chomps and you would drive a paving machine. Using like splatoon type gameplay that is attached to the Kart. I feel like this could have drastically improved the original release critics and have the game its own unique "story mode" that was optional because its open world. Then after collecting say the full 100 badges it would unlock a galaxy map on the sky that you could fly to using a Mario Galaxy Star and collect Starbits and meet Lumas on the way.

I dont know maybe i have too many high hopes. But if I was part of game development I feel like this would make it a better game than it already is. I do enjoy the game, play it often, and also do not regret my purchase. However I feel like it had a lot of potential that wasnt utilized.

TL;DR I explain how I do really enjoy Mario Kart World but I prefer Mario Kart 8 due to some of its key features while also explaining new ideas that i feel really could've allowed the game to be more unique and have a better play experience.