I will take Toei's horrible OP pacing a thousand times over Naruto screwing off canon material for two goddamn years straight. And yeah I know that was the original series, but still, just think about that. Two. Years. And then like 30 episodes into Shippuuden, they somehow need to launch straight back into more filler. It's pathetic. As glacial as OP can be these days, at least you're always getting a steady trickle of new content, albeit sometimes one agonizing droplet at a time.
The only real thing Naruto's adaptation has in its favor is that Toei usually looks like they're making OP on a shoestring budget, and even its best moments are just 15-second flashes of good animation. Both the original Naruto and Shippuuden have a few select episodes with almost movie-budget animation that are a fantastic watch.