(LES) I fucking HATE Ultra Instinct
Gonna type this all at once I've wanted to make this rant for a while now but FUCK this transformation (TRANSFORMATION TRANSFORMATION) it's used so badly I hate this shit so much.
Ultra Instinct is the successor to Super Saiyan Blue, meaning that it had a very low bar to clear to be considered remotely good. It's also a "technique" that's supposed to evoke the idea of "Mushin", which doesn't strictly apply to Martial Arts, but basically is of the idea of doing something without actually thinking about it. To sever one's body from one's thoughts so completly as to let the former react spontaneously and automatically to danger. On paper, it isn't a bad idea to have Goku's next power-up involve something else than training hard and tap more into the spiritual side of martial arts. And in execution, it's hard to deny the form didn't cause a massive amount of hype, so it did its job for the execs.
But as applied, it's FUCKING ASS. Ultra Instinct's main selling point is obstensibly being able to dodge good but there's only one fight in the anime where Goku being able to dodge good actually matters and that's Kefla. It's the one fight where Ultra Instinct kind of work as what it's supposed to be in that it dodges good and move fast but doesn't hit that hard and Goku has to manoeuver his way to Kefla and land a point-blank Kamehameha to actually beat her. It's made crystal clear that Goku's only able to win due to UI allowing him to dodge the onslaught.
In fact, UI Omen in the anime is unironically more in tune with the whole idea than its completed form just because Goku actually does dodge stuff in this take. It's "mastered" form in the anime and the manga is where it gets ass and that's because, simply put, the whole dodging thing is a worthless gimmick. The strength, speed and durability it gives Goku are ultimately what matters, like any other transformation. The dodging thing is just an extra bonus that Goku can use to look cool but that doesn't actually win him any fight if you think about it. In fact, Goku's dodging is largely irrelevant when facing an equal or superior, where you'd think that it'd be handy. Why? Because they're faster, so his skill is worth jackshit.
The one time that Ultra Instinct's ability "matters" is at the Moro's arc where it can dodge his energy absorption (even when he has a passive AoE) but that's useless because Moro just beat Goku's ass with regular hits. What even is the fucking point, then? If Goku's still slow enough to get hit consistently, what even is the point of being able to dodge well if you CAN'T dodge? You'd think UI would be an opportunity to showcase Goku's lauded "skills" but he use it like any other form. It just makes him objectively stronger and faster, and when those benefits come up short, he's shit out of luck. Dodging good isn't even that much of a "skill", as demonstrated plentily through the show, if you're stronger than someone, you're faster than them and can dodge them all day. UI's gimmick completly useless because it just allows you to do what you could already do if you're stronger than your opponent, but if you're at their level, they can literally just tag you and you're shit out of luck. Even Goku, whose fans swear up and down is extremely good at fighting, basically end up missing the whole point and try just powering-up like a brute when cornered against Moro.
Hell, Goku basically gets angry against Jiren at the end of their anime fight and overpower him through this like always. Using a technique who's whole thing is "haha i work through skill and letting the body do everything on its own. You'd think being angry would make it worse but no, it doesn't. And when Goku naturally fails to finish the job, it's because the technique's toll is too much, not because he misused it.
Ultra Shitstain see some development against Granolah where its use is a bit elaborated upon - it can get more accurate when Goku uses Super Saiyan forms and he can use it to slightly counter Granolah's eye powers. All good but nothing that really matters. There's an attempt at making clear Goku's still only a scrub at it (so much for "mastered") and that he needs to forge his own version, which is whatever it is he does against Gas. Once again, Ultra Instinct's dodging abilities are meaningless, it's just a transformation buff. When Gas catch up in speed, it's once again fucking useless and it basically get one-shotted by Frieza later.
Side note on Frieza but his intervention at the end is so fucking bad. The fact he trained is meant to show the difference between an hard worker and people who just coast by on wishes but it functionally isn't any different from Gas wishing for more strength offscreen. They both show up stronger than the heroes, there's no difference. Frieza's "toll" and hard work is meaningless because as far as we can see in the narrative, his and Gas's power-ups are no different. And at least Gas didn't have the audacity of returning with a transformation somehow uglier than Golden Friezass.
"Well, Goku can't do much with a power gap", sure, but wasn't there a chance to try their hands at making techniques that only increase parts of your stats massively? The big hype of UI is that it's a technique from the angels, why make it functionally just another Super Saiyan stat boost instead of trying to make it a transformation more focused on speed and agility?
Because the franchise was creatively bankrupt long ago and knows it cannot actually depict skill in any way. Because you can't pretend to have characters shoot beams and fly but then use anything remotely applicable to the real world. Because, again, every character functionally work the same way and there's few moments overall where skill is of any use compared to sheer power, as much as the franchise and its fans attempt to deny it.
Ultra I-stink is a fraud. It hides itself as a "technique" when it's basically Super Saiyan Silver or whatever. You can probably easily find tons of other techniques in comics or manga where someone fight "without thinking" and they're probably legitimately more skillful than UI because it actually doesn't make them hit stronger. If anything, the fact that a technique like this is some god-tier shit that not even Beerus can attain just show everyone is bad at martial arts in this.
Anyway, I'm gonna read more shonen where everyone punch super fast and everybody is like "their skill is immense!"
TL:DR: Ultra Instinct is just a transformation with a worthless gimmick and it sucks.