Hi there CuseJeff44 (I always wonder where the names came from).
here is my ramble.
I LOVED reading your post. I know I'm a couple of days late, but let me tell you our story. we cruised on Carnival until we got Diamond which was not worth anything, but that was 2007-2012 and the ships were great and we went everywhere in Europe and Carib. Loved it despite "problems". and takeaways like pineapple fresh at breakfast . Then RCI all the way up to pinnacle!! We went in Junior Suites because even then it was 152 sq ft of room and we couldn't handle a smaller room for the 2 of us. So it got to Pinnacle faster.
We cruise the very last cruise before Covid shut the ships down in march 2020. Everyone was nervouse. we felt like a family.
Now, we read about the protocols and see the masks and realize we hate crowds (the brainwashing of 6 ft kicked into the subconscious). And we are annoyed at having to pay for a test 3 days before a cruise when you and anyone else can "get it" in that time.
So we canceled a 9 day Grandeur this Nov and are "waiting" on a Dec 5 day to decide.
We hate all the problems you mentioned. But we did keep cruising on Royal just pivoting to what gave a good ration of GREAT to "would rather do without".
I will say, we have EATEN EVERY AVAILABLE MEAL IN THE MDR!! EVEN WHEN THEY SAID THEY CHANGED THE MENU IT WAS ONLY ONE OR 2 ITEMS. We now don't eat there any more. Takes too long. But if we did eat there, we remember you used to say I want a 2nd or 3rd serving of say that cheapo shrimp appetizer.or a 2nd entree. If that is no longer the case wow. Also, we know the upsell is horrible. You know the upsell is horrible. So perhaps you can decide - is there something else other than food or dink that you cruise for. For us - we loved the orchestra and cheezy production shows and meeting people on the crew we'd seen before. I loved the espresso in the lounge and walking on the deck at sea. None of that required lines on the non-mega ships. So we stopped going on the mega ships where you have to reserve a seat. Also, all ships are different. We didn't like the Adventure when they changed captain and the orchestra leader Dave Moorhead retired.
So final note. We started staying in hotels and doing land stuff and found we missed it. We don't even rent a car (no kids though). So do one of those and compare it to a ship perhaps. It's ok to complain. CHEERS! Florida person who loves Florida and may cruise again sometime.