I may not be alone on this but I think that I am enjoying the Malistaire Arch more than the newer arch. It made more sense to me, and it was a lot simpler than the newer arch. There was no critical, no block, no piercing, no cheating bosses (mostly) and a bunch of other somewhat annoying stuff the the new Arch brought in. I think that the critical and block idea was a good addition but by the time you get to Avalon and Azteca, the whole unit becomes worthless as all the bosses block. Also some of the gear is only focused on resist to a couple of schools, not all of them. In addition, the gear is focused on critical damage and as I said that becomes useless after a while. I still continue to play the game because I am addicted to it, but as soon as I finish a new world I tend to take a little break as I am bored of all the fighting and all. But I am getting off topic. My main point is that I enjoy the Malistaire Arch over the Morganthe Arch.
You are not alone - I think there are a lot of us that have the same feelings of the game. Not all of us need the "challenge" from a game to like it. I thought it was a kids game I could actually figure out, my wake up call was in Celestia. It took me 2 weeks to complete the first few quests there due to constant defeat.
For me the game does loose all it's fun, stress free appeal as soon as I leave DS. I mainly joined for a simple game with a questing structure so I could make my way though areas. It ends up being a test of my will - will I even bother doing this aggravation. Once all the figuring this and that out started to come into play the stress free part left me, it was no longer a magical adventure for my wizard, it was shape up or be defeated repeatedly. Way more math for me to want to bother with. I am doing no more then pushing my wizard though the game - I couldn't tell you what the story line is from DS on, it just doesn't matter, you are dumped out of the frying pan into the fire and expected to back pedal to figure out what your wizard must have to survive and progress or just go back and start all over again until that becomes a boring grind also.
Since the game has stepped up play to where it is currently in AZ I imagine the major part of the player base wants this sort of game, more like others they have played. Those of us who do not like that sort of game play are left to just step up to the plate, like it or not or pass on it.
