To be completely honest, the Novels were great and that's basically all story with little to no art. Anime adaptations (specially at that point in time) weren't known for being all that accurate, so I think the show did lack on some aspects, but still second season kinda picked the pace up. A shame it went downwards after that.
My point being: yes, the story is enjoyable and lighthearted, no need to nitpick on the power scaling when it never was the focus of the series. There are far worse contenders even in modern times, but I do agree the anime could be better adapted