the issues are too huge to enjoy the narrative in spite of them. Not that it wasn't watchable per se, more like...impossible to actually love.

That's generally how I feel about Moffat's writing. He's not impossible to watch - he writes clever lines and such - but hard to love. Because of the looming issues.

We all have different things that ping us, though, for sure. I mean, I watched SPN for... four years? Maybe three, I can't recall at the moment, despite the build-up of issues that I had with it.