Ok, so, this arc has done two thing. One, I've become way more emotionally invested in Frieren as a character and its world. And two, it's revealed what I would consider a massive flaw in this story. That is, this original hero party is just way more interesting than Fern and Stark. They work much better as a group and the story is instantly more immersive with them. The draw of this manga for me was to see Frieren doing a journey of self discovery, learning and importantly, reflecting on her past, but that has in some ways fallen by the wayside for her new adventure with Fern and Stark, and that is sadly just less interesting than what we see here.