Exploration, archon story quests, and music have gotten better, while character design for natlan characters has gotten much worse (Fontaine character design was fine imo).
There is a tool to make an artifact with your desired set, artifact type, main stat, and a few substats. However, it is timegated. You can only make about one sands/goblet/circlet per patch. If you choose to make flowers/feathers instead, you can make around 3 of those per patch.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3TWjgThCnE
yes.
you would really like the source material imo, zorsith. It's basically male nichijou.
https://myanimelist.net/anime/11843/Danshi_Koukousei_no_Nichijou