tl;dr: Love the changes from Season 11, but feel like it also made the game feel smaller and unfulfilling when compared to what was there.I've been playing since launch and after the release of Season 11, I both love the changes brought on by the new voyage system, but also miss how the game used to be.

Starting with my pros:

• New voyage system: I really enjoy how we can now start voyages or world events (for free) from our quest table. That change simplified and consolidated the old voyage system, and while I do miss having to talk to the trading companies to get voyages (almost like an old quest giver handing out quests), I think it was a good and smart change.
• Diving: For the new diving feature, I commend Rare for this. There have been countless times when I would have 20-30 minutes before class or work and would not be able to play SoT despite wanting to, so I can say that the addition of this feature to speed up the process for those who want a quick voyage is a wonderful addition for those times where I'm on a time crunch.
• Distinctions: I've been at max level for all trading companies for years, and Athena for about a month, and it's nice to feel a sense of accomplishment again when the progress goes up for each of the factions. That and distinctions, rings, wonderful additions and I can't wait to kit out my ship and pirate with the new cosmetics.
• Ashen Lords/Skeleton Captains: They are worth going after now and I love it! No more seeing them and going "eh, they don't really give anything good"

Now onto my cons:

• The world feels smaller: With the new voyage system in place, the world feels smaller. Pre-Season 11 voyages (especially Gold Hoarder), I loved seeing a full quest wheel and venturing to all of the islands as if I was on a treasure hunt retracing the steps of the pirate who buried the loot. I could start at Galleon's Grave outpost and, in one voyage, venture through the entire world until ending at Sanctuary, with the journey filled with encounters with players, PvE elements, and just random piratical mischief. Now with the new voyage system, it feels like I'm island hopping with hardly anything happening between islands, only getting one island at a time, either treasure maps or riddles and not a combination of both. This has left the map feeling smaller to me, hopping from island to island with hardly anything able to spawn on me between them.
• Lack of loot variety: I'm personally not a fan of having the loot pool of 7 (I believe I counted that right) different chests you could dig up with each X being replaced with 2, and even then, there's no variety on what you dig up. Doing a treasure hunt, you're guaranteed all chests to be either Sailor for a small island and Sea Master for big islands. There's no longer that sense mystery of "i wonder what it'll be" and rather knowing exactly what you're gonna get, and I'm not a fan of it.
• Unfulfilling rewards: The raid rewards, despite being worth a lot, are unfulfilling. I understand they balanced each item to be worth a lot, but it's kind of a letdown to open the vault of a fort or treasury and find 2-3 chests/crates and a couple trinkets. There are no more large loot hauls and piles to be proud of, and despite it being worth similar, the handful of loot just doesn't feel fulfilling for me as I bring them back on my ship.

Overall, I understand that the overhaul and changes from Season 11 are geared more towards newer players, and to make loot/voyages more consolidated and easier to attain, but compared to what it used to be, the new system leaves me feeling unfulfilled and feeling that they should have just added the features rather than fully replacing them.

My suggestions/wishlist:

• Just adding the new chests/loot to the complete loot pool rather than making all of the treasure rewarded for voyages the newly added ones. Adding more variety, and worth to the loot dug up or retrieved from PvE elements.
• Adding the old voyage system of multiple chapters/islands by being able to choose the voyage length/duration. I love how you can see "how long" a voyage will take, and it would be able to choose how long you want a voyage to be, adding some control/decision to the player of what they want to do.
• For raids, instead of a handful of small large-valued loot as a reward, having maybe 2-3 valuable items and a variety of less-valuable loot from that company, adding both variety and fulfillment for them.

That's my takeaway from Season 11. Maybe it's just me, but as much as Season 11 improved, the game feels less rewarding and smaller compared to what was there. That's just how it feels for me personally. It might just take some time for me to get used to.