EU5 in 1.2 feels like a punishment simulator! the more you optimize, the harder the game punishes you.
It seems like the game constantly punishes the player for playing well and attempting to optimize the country:
The stuff that is supposed to create historical tension is so much and so badly designed that it's not even worth optimizing. I can play as a lobotomized monkey and do absolutely nothing in most cases and get nearly identical results as when I try-hard.
I suppose what I am trying to say is that the reward structure is inverted. Court and Country fires because you did exactly what the Age of Absolutism rewards - you centralized too much, and your nation is crippled for 20 years. You get more colonies - endless revolts, even when all colonies are happy. You get more pops - they all die anyway because of disease, despite spamming pop growth bonuses.
The decisions that are supposed to be difficult but lead to great rewards don't lead to any reward. The meta they have created rewards passive players. Every active optimization route triggers punishment, and that is the opposite of what a grand strategy game should feel like.
I was willing to live with the punishments from before 1.2, but the new disease mechanic is so incredibly broken that I think that they actually had an intern design and come up with it.
Feel free to downvote into oblivion as I am sure many will disagree, but I had to get this out.