There are several problems with bu for my taste. Highlighting someYou have a son, right? So I think you did pretty well with the ladies
I love the original, but I saw it after Z as that's the order it was shown here in the UK, so Z, despite it's flaws, will always be my favourite. I love it all - even the Garlic Jr saga
Saiyan saga is my favourite because Krillin, Yamcha, Tien and Chiaotzu are all still somewhat relevant. Namek second because I love the adventure aspect (like the original) and Krillin is like the main character of that arc. Frieza sagas great, but then the writing slips a bit because Toriyama doesn't have his heart fully in it anymore.
I actually prefer the Buu saga to the Cell saga. From the moment Frieza arrives on earth and is greeted by Trunks to Cell absorbing 17, I'd put the Android/Cell saga nearly up top, but everything after Cell absorbing 17 is just not as good as everything else in the series for me. I still love it and Gohan going SSJ2 is one of my favourite moments. Buu was just more fun to me.
When I first watched GT, I liked it - and still do - but there's no denying it was a letdown. I appreciated that they tried to take it back to its roots with the adventure aspect of searching for dragon balls. Unlike Super which has always come off as ripoff fanfic, GT had some good original ideas (Baby hating the Saiyans, Shadow Dragons after overusing the dragon balls, SSJ4 instead of just changing the hair colour, etc). It also progressed Vegeta's character after he had come to terms with everything in the middle of fighting Kid Buu instead of Super reverting him back to "I MUST BE BETTER THAN KAKAROT".
As I said above, I wanted the original after Z back in the day and still loved it. It's a very different show to Z (until the Piccolo saga at least) but, if you love the characters like I did, it's no problem.
Also, you're right about Toriyama wanting to end it at Frieza, which would've been interesting as would he have ended it on the cliffhanger of Goku seemingly dying when Namek exploded? Or when he refused to be wished back to Earth?
He then wanted to end it with Cell, and with Goku passing the torch to Gohan. That's right; Goku was never supporting to come back but, like with Vegeta staying, the fan demand was too strong so he was brought back to be the hero again!
After Buu he was completely done. There was no one convincing him to do more, and you can see it in the writing of that saga. Whilst I enjoyed it, you could tell his heart wasn't in it anymore with all the plotholes and asspulls. I'm glad he made that saga, though, because there was so many good moments that really added to the franchise.
- It buried everything of the past. Suddenly freeza was no the strongest on the universe, not even close. So WTF king kai?
- yamcha without training fighting olibu, that was muuuuch more stronger than freeza
- the fight with vegeta vs goku was rigged, because he didnt even try as he was sayan 3 lvl
- what you mentioned about passing rhe torch gohan let hinself go, gotten and trunks sucks. They have 0 carisma
- overuse of fusion. Gotrunks, Vegito (cheating on the sepapartion inside bu) , the gods fusion. And you dont even need to train, magic earings
- krilin has hair