^
^ Well said, Parhelion. To be honest, it was when Saki and Yuuka left, and the new girls joining, that I started losing interest in S/mileage. Every point you made is very relatable to how I've been feeling about them as a group. It has only been recently that I decided to try to get into them again, and while some songs are good, they just don't have that charm as a group that the original lineup had.