Yeah I have read quotes from Jordan saying he was surprised by the backlash and that it did not work as he intended, but I'm not sure how significant it was for me.
I think more for me it things like the Cleansing being such huge events in-world, yet having no actual effect on the narrarive. The men would no longer go mad, but it did not actually change anything that was happening. There was a lot backtracking in the story - too many things that should have been pay-off was actually just red herrings. Too many things were relying on dramatic irony where we knew but the characters didn't and the list of things they didn't know seemed to keep increasing rather than occasionally releasing the frustration.
And Faile and the Shaido of course. But that in and of itself wasn't such an issue, it was more part of a more indefiniable malaise.