I think part of what is so devasting to me about Boruto is simply the fact that the "villains" are just too strong.
The Naruto ending was very conclusive, meaning that in order for Boruto to have any significant conflict, they needed to reopen the ideas of Kaguya (the final boss). The issue I see with this is that the traditional ninja arts are just no longer relevant. You can't have taijutsu and kenjutsu specialists be successful in this time period because how are they going to do anything against a god? The Boruto universe has been forced into a corner where only high impact jutsus and other flashy techniques are of any use to shinobi. I miss the days of tactical fighting, of two opponents decking it out in a fist fight. This kinda disappeared in the war arc, but I think even more so in Boruto.
I know many people complain that Boruto is just about "aliens" now and many others counter by saying that Naruto wasn't about regular ninjas either, but I think they miss the point. Naruto was about ninja that could use magic. They were enhanced by it, but still often fell back on more fundamental shinobi practices. That doesn't happen in Boruto, they can't do that and it's a major flaw in my eyes.
It just feels like there is a complete lack of sincerity to the world. I think there are ways to have villains be truly bad people, but the Boruto execution is lacking. There is no sense of emotion. Characters don't necessarily need reason to be "evil," but I want some form of expression. Give me madness, give me hostility, given me irritation, give me obsession, give me grief, give me SOMETHING. I don't feel for the characters in any way. They seem hollow and it makes it hard to enjoy reading.
