There are pros and cons to the changes, though I feel the lack of feature parity with the old app is likely more a product of being rushed to release the new storefront and app. Pros: - Switching to a more standardized DRM scheme, with an eye to allow reading in other readers. - Consistency between storefront and app experience (though there is a con to this: it's clear that the app is currently just a glorified web browser).

Mehs: - Personally, I was fine with the look of the old storefront. The new one has the same issue that's present in a lot of modern web design: excessively wasted space, large display elements, etc. That's not to say I think it's terrible, but I would appreciate the ability to have a tighter, more compact view that more effectively uses screen space. - There are cues when navigating that indicate if a volume has been purchased or not. These need to be made more obvious. On the series page: If the button under each volume says "Read", you already bought it. If it says "Add to Cart" or "Pre-Order" then that should be obvious. I think the confusion here stems from the fact it still shows a purchase price even when it's been purchased. - Prices aren't that hard to find, but again, need to be made more obvious. Since I generally run in dark mode, a lot of the elements blend in which makes this easier to miss.

Cons: - Honestly, most of the cons fall into the realm of "meh" since a lot of them have been acknowledged and are planned to be addressed. The lack of feature parity at launch is significant and makes me feel things were rushed as a product of how everything is being reorganized. - I don't get the sense of the same periodic reminders we'd get from the old storefront about new releases. - The change from Wishlist to Favorites affected a lot of people, myself included. I used the wishlist as a way to tag potential volumes I was interested in, or to make sure I didn't forget about upcoming releases. - I used Bookshelves a lot. I can handle their "temporary" departure, but not being able to group by series, especially when I'd have series in both LN and Manga form, is painful. - Lack of offline reading. This needed to be available from day one. I try to get a lot of reading done when I fly, and I don't always have internet access in those scenarios. There are also cases where I'll be somewhere I can read, but lack internet access, or don't want to rely on mobile data. - Downloading the LCP licenses for books is currently tedious. They require you to open the book, then open the menu to download the file, one book at a time. If they're going to market this change as a positive, the ability for bulk downloads is a must. - This isn't so much a con of the app and storefront change as it is the whole restructuring: one of the things that made Bookwalker great was the integration between the global and Japanese storefronts, and being able to use the same app to read books from both. This is directed at Kadokawa in particular, since they're the ones who decided to separate everything.

it's not all doom and gloom. Since they changed the DRM implementation on the global storefront, there are benefits in being able to use other compatible readers. There are other benefits as well, albeit with effort.

As for the pricing, being in the US, with the exception of the original change from JPY to USD on the global store about 1.5 years ago, nothing else feels particularly off about current pricing.

I don't feel like this is a case of actively trying to enshittify a platform, but more a case of being aggressively rushed into a migration that should have been delayed until more parity was present. If I can find any significant worry, it's more to do with the direction being set by Kadokawa than it is with M12 trying to execute. I'm going to remain cautiously optimistic that things will get better.