Personally I love the new format and wasn't under the illusion that Mirai would be returning to weekly streams. Being able to see Ryan explain his decisions technically and artistically with help of visual media and drawing over images is really great. I don't get the strict desire to see a branch bent "live". I get a lot more out of the streams now than I did when Ryan could only explain his rationale verbally and with hand waving.
Learning about the design evolution of the Japanese Traditional model pre and post WWII was absolutely fascinating. 5 stars.