I've played this a lot, still play but less since I want to play with non-randoms to be able to try pulling things off in stealth or elegantly instead of the almost unavoidable stealth fails you get when one guy is either bad, a noob or doesn't speak english.
I enjoy both aspects of the game. Even after they changed stealth. I didn't really like it that much at first, I had learned the secure method of Framing Frame for instance and while it was perhaps a bit easy when you knew exactly what to do (kill 4 guards, dominate the fifth, take out cameras, bag throwing simulator), some of the more complex stealth maps became RNG parties when you could no longer clear the level and had to successfully avoid a few remaining guards in levels that don't really allow you to always escape a patrolling guard. Anyway, it's a different challenge but especially on the maps released after the stealth change it's more doable. Election day part 2 and the recent shadow raid work fairly well with the new system, Framing Frame not so much. Train Heist pretty much not at all.
The main problem with multiplayer stealth in PD2 (apart from bad players) seems to be the net code that gives a delay for everyone but the host in terms of the detection circle. Basically you can step out around a corner and after a while the circle pops up, you're being spotted, you pop back in cover but the circle continues to fill because of the delay and your cover is blown.
The MMOish elements they've put in to pad the play time are all extremely unfortunate and annoying. I really don't understand how they thought it would be a good idea to make people wait in line for simply playing a heist they like. It's utterly retarded. Waiting for that heist you want to play to pop up randomly out of a selection of 15+ others, and then also the difficulty you want from 5 different ones. Just, why? The added idiocy of the system where you're penalized for playing one heist several times in a row is also unfortunate since it takes choice and fun away from the player just because some people were upset that others wanted to play Rats to level up. Additionally, it pretty much put a stop to lobbies sticking together for more jobs when a team happened to form for a public job that worked well together, since everyone have different xp boosts/penalties to different heists.
Likewise, the gun customization aspect was a great improvement on PD:TH, but the random card draw system to acquire upgrades for guns totally destroys it until you've either farmed normal jewelry store for cards or collected enough normally by which time you're probably level 70-80 of 100.
The separation of cash and xp is also questionable since it would otherwise allow you to gain more experience by risking failure to steal more. As it stands you're not really interested in extra loot most of the time since money becomes worthless at a certain point while the xp grind is much longer. You only really need cash in the early game to buy new weapons and attach any mods you luck into finding for the gun you like using, and for assigning skill points from leveling up. Another kind of stupid decision imo that you need both cash and xp to assign skills, in an otherwise superior system of choosing your perks than PD:TH.
Anyway, I'd be happy to play some friends only games for a change. I don't care if you've hacked your level to max as long as you want to play without cheating in the actual game.