Would prefer it if the author just quit trying to make some deeper story for this, he clearly is unable to make a good one. The villains are complete garbage and story would be better without.
I'm gonna respectfully disagree. It's rare to have more than 2 sides in a story (good vs bad); even more rare for a setup like this. Sure, it's slow, but there's way more nuance across the factions than usual—and even some variance within the factions, and I'm all for that.
Granted, the donkey group subplot, I don't like. That could disappear and I might enjoy this more. But the old demon lord faction being unaligned with anyone but the main character, the church having its good and bad parts, the old heroes having their good and bad parts (and split up into smaller factions), and the individual countries having their own politics and wars? I think those parts have been done well.
Again, I do just wish the donkey trio wasn't so much of a joke faction. They could disappear, in my opinion.