I'm having problems with Sailor Moon as well.
I liked the old anime even though I never had enough patience to watch all of its episodes. I skipped most or R and some episodes here and there of S and Stars. Still, I always felt like I really liked the franchise and loved the characters. When I finally read the manga, I really liked it despite its simplicity and nonsensical plot.
Now, skip to 2014. Every time I try to watch Crystal, I end up dropping it after 2 or 3 episodes. Even now with S, despite being excited because of Haruka and Setsuna, after 3 episodes I dropped it. Now I decided to watch this week's episode, only to find myself flash-forwarding the whole thing and cringing to the few parts I actually watched.
I can't judge it too harshly based on that because it was starting a new manga style, it was pretty much sailing (!) in uncharted waters. Also I never read old shoujos, so I don't know how they handled the whole plot progression and character development back then. But even taking everything into consideration, I can't really say I like what I am seeing.
I think I will simply stop trying to give Crystal a chance and forget about reading the manga again as I was planning. Maybe I should keep enjoying the franchise based on what I remember from the old anime and the nostalgic feeling I still have (and go play the SNES rpg for the thousandth time).
EDIT: Wow, Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne. That brings me back to 2000/01. I like it alright, not a big fan of it. Still, there was one character I fell in love with. Guess who.
RE-EDIT: add Rayearth and I think this is pretty much all the shoujo I've ever read?