I used to love this game, I reached 75 with all the major traders and reached rank 48 in reapers so ill go ahead and give my thoughts on this game. All major positives can easily be found in other reviews so ill focus on what makes this game unbearable to play.

1. PVP.
Sadly the skill ceiling for SOT is so high that all new players will grow to hate online interactions. I've sank my fair share of ships and rightfully got away with it. Unfortunately I haven't seen a "New" player for almost 3 months. All PVP interactions will be against sweaty players with great aim.

2. Cheats.
This game doesn't seem to have an Anticheat. Most players do not use god mode or speed hacks. Its mostly ESP and Aimbot (or Autofire scripts)

3. Time investment.
It takes around an hour to turn any kind loot into gold. I enjoy this kind of time investment, that being said its hard to enjoy the game when 45 min of progress is immediately erased by a streamer who is server hopping for content. (Speaking from experience on this one)

4. The community.
If you sink- "Git Good trash"
If you sink them - "you are a Hacker/ Hit Reg Issues"

5. Lack of punishment for toxic behavior.
I've been called every slur in the book by a 14 year old who probably doesn't even know what a slur is. While i'm not offended or bothered by it I don't think its appropriate for most kids to be around. Reporting a player in sea of thieves requires you to sign up on SOT website and submit video proof to get someone reprimanded. I don't have the patience for that, nor should I be responsible for moderating other players.

Update 7/23/2023: I'm no longer playing Sea Of Thieves due to the lack of punishment for toxic activity. On 7/09/2023 I was harassed by a few players so i went ahead and filled out a report. In addition I let Sea of thieves moderation know that if nothing was done I would add the information in the report to my review. After a day or so of harassment I learned that the aforementioned user was only banned for a few days.... So here's the video of my encounter with him.

Part 1: https://youtu.be/5wT5eB2SB6g
Part 2: https://youtu.be/mEadMcbZjfM

6. Game modes
You really only have 1 option..... PVPVE

I believe it takes anywhere between 3 and 5 positive interactions to offset 1 negative experience. This game is probably 2 positives for every 1 negative

Exceptions can be found for almost all of the things listed above.
....But honestly, why listen to the exceptions?