I perhaps worded myself far too vaguely with "I never really looked beyond that".
I do pay attention to the story, that's one of the main reasons I fell in love with it after all.
The survival aspect of the school and all the shokugekis were genuinely exciting for me,
and I loved seeing Soma figure his way out of the jams he was in.
I also had an appreciation for the chemistry of the characters and the comedy that resulted from it.
Soma & Alice play off each other so well, I loved that dynamic at the tournament.
I honestly had no problem when the Azami stuff started,
because I thought "welp, every shounen manga has an inevitable dark arc. Here comes evil daddy."
And it was initially a matter of just waiting it out while appreciating the Erina bonding that was thawing her wall of ice.
Then the fights vs the elite 10 started (on the train routes) and I was like "oh shiiiiit, this gon be gud!"
And I really enjoyed the Hayama match for seeing him get knocked off his perch,
and Rindou was hilarious with the way she easily passed Megumi and Takumi.
I also appreciated that so many of the other dorm members (plus Alice & Kurokiba) failed.
That did a lot for emphasising the level of the elite 10.
Then when Soma made the bet with Azami for the seats of the elite 10, I thought it was a pretty ballsy and epic proposition.
A curveball that gives me thrills when it comes to shounen manga. Soma shakes things up, and I love that about him.
It just felt… right.
The only questionable thing for me is that Erina was made headmistress, which I agreed was kinda dumb on paper.
Especially since she's only a first year.
But as I said back in my original post upon chapter release, I'll keep an eye on where this goes.
I'm an optimist who likes to give the benefit of the doubt.
If he thinks he can make this work, then I'll give him a chance to show me.
On the whole though, things still feel on course for me and what I want out of reading this.
We'll see how I feel about the current direction after the next arc. :)