Don't get me wrong, those first 30 something episodes were complete crap and I still wouldn't recommend it to anyone.
But Yorknew fixed a lot of the problems I had with the show. The issue of death being treated as trivial was fixed. The constant training/testing stopped. And Gon/Killua were replaced by a way better MC.
Even during Yorknew it still does baffling things though, like it builds up momentum and then has Gon and Killua go antiquing for an entire episode. Not joking.