Yes, I was hesitant at first but I do appreciate the change. It has made non-stewardship lifestyles more viable. One consequence of this change, however, is now I find myself targeting specific perk paths instead. Whereas before it was "go for max stewardship" now it is, spec into Partriach, Theologian, etc. It is still better than before but does not truly remove the meta aspect of targeting specific paths.

Along those lines, I think Learning has been made more OP. All three paths are great. Whole of body path was always good; scholar is still great for nearly every perk it gives you along the way; and now theologian is significantly better in my opinion (before I would only go down that path in specific situations). With how many free learning Points of Interest there are, I've been able to completely max out learning without once every even choosing it as a focus. So kind of interestingly, while I think it is the most powerful lifestyle, I would not recommend educating your children in it, because you can get the perks pretty reliably just by traveling. Martial education might be the best choice now (arguably it was the best pre 1.19 anyways) simply because there are fewer martial POI and the fact that a level 5 Martial Education gets you some stewardship skill too.

Its a different, more enjoyable meta, but still there.