As a long time homebrewer and user of BF I have found some of the changes to be buggy or confusing and sometimes even mildly counterintuitive. However, I am also a software engineer of 25 years so I understand updating a pay-as-you-go application, feature creep, process revisiting, feature creep, rigorous testing, feature creep, interface design, etc. The amount of good things from BF still far outweigh the bad for me.
I could easily pick 25 people randomly that use BF somewhat regularly and probably end up with about 25 different methods and ways of brewing because, well, that's what we do. There are so many ways of doing what we do it's probably impossible to quantify. Creating software and tools to help with brewing is an overwhelming endeavor by virtue of individual style, process and methodology. Mix all of that together and you have quite an undertaking and the slightest modification or change to something will inevitably tick someone off.
I brew about 20 all-grain 5gal batches a season (April to October for me here in New England brewing outdoors). I develop tons of recipes (most of which never see the light of day) and I have a pretty solid and complex process. It's challenging to have to deal with bugs/issues with BF because I brew practically every week or so and I don't have a lot of time to fiddle with things. On the same token the amount of batches and complexity also means I don't really want to change software either. Quite honestly, Brewfather, Beersmith and some of those other "competitive" products are not much better and they have their share of bugs, weird-isms and inexplicable UI choices. But what they do have is the ability to cater to those processes and methods that some of us hold near and dear. BF works for some, Brewfather works for others, etc. I'm not going to jump ship any time soon because it's fruitless, futile and doesn't put me in a better place. If you are going to go to another app, then go there and brew awesome stuff. If you are going to stay and be a part of helping BF, then stay, help and brew awesome stuff. There's a solution out there to how BF can get back on track and it will be found. It's frustrating but attainable.
My opinion on a new approach is to keep things simple and focus on the current pain points. Focus on the things that are the bigger picture headaches like some folks mentioned above. Take the core parts of the software (grain, water, hops, yeast, mash, brew steps, etc) and give them a once over for fixes and corrections, then see how they work together and go from there. After that, a solution on handling the feature set will present itself.
For what it's worth, I'm into the advanced features like efficiency, water profiles, yeast population, grain modification, protein rests, sacch rests, hop utilization, trub and boil off losses, strict fermentation temps, branded ingredient information and all of the other fun things that make this a hobby. Which is what it is at the end of the day. An expensive hobby
