My perspective might be a bit more biased on that first point since I only got into the system in the late 00's.
But I disagree with the second point. I almost exclusively GM for my group, and I'd hardly consider anything I had to do to run the game a "slog". There's about as much prep and rules checking as any other system. Maybe a bit more front loading if you want to make a custom race available, but that didn't take too much more time that doing the same in Pathfinder 1e or DnD 3.5 did.