The stages don't bother me, they make the pit strategy a little more complex and give some credit to the Mark Martins and Michael McDowells. They do seem stupid on the small tracks like Martinsville and Bristol, but not enough that I'm not gonna watch.
The Gen 5 and Gen 6 cars were painful to watch. It was all bump drafting and tandem drafting the whole race. The Gen 7 cars have largely fixed that. They are a lot more handling and aero sensitive. We'll probably never see racing like the Gen 4 cars, but the Gen 7s are the closest it has been since.