Mahouka Overall Thoughts
The anime lacked the....spirit of the anime. My worst fear came through when they just nonchalantly skip all the explanation that was necessary for the show, the small details that was important was gone and the fights playing like a stop motion show. The fights were fast and deadly in the light novel, nobody had time to push buttons like a old man, but that is what happened in the anime anyway.
Many explanations were gone. What is decomposition? How did he managed to make the flying spell work? What did miyuki did that made them stop during episode 25? Much as i remember, the anime to not even try to tell the viewers the inner workings of the system of magic in its world, and mahouka lived on its explanations.
As someone who made a point of not watching any of this series past episode 1, I can't make my own judgments. But it's interesting to contrast your impressions with this other post. It reminds me of the difference between people who watch an adaptation because they want to see the original work move, and people who watch the adaptation because they just want to see a good story.
But this series made magic so damn boring. I don't care how well constructed your world is if I don't care about the people in it, and the side characters barely got to do anything until the final arc - and all these arcs were too long. Too long, and if the magic stuff was shown instead of told - or at least told as much as necessary - it could be much more tolerable. Just shove all of it off into a guidebook and focus on the freaking characters.
In a visual medium, you need a lot less explanation for things because you can see them happen in front of you. This is often true for explanatory lore, and it can be true for inner monologue as well, when handled properly. You can show, and not tell, and let the audience draw their own conclusions.
It seems like Mahouka wound up in an unhappy medium where it explained more than it needed for people who didn't care, without explaining enough for people who were already fans of the property.