Idk if they regret it, but I'll perpetually feel secondhand embarrassment over how much of a disaster it was, everything seemed like such an afterthought. I don't like the s1/2 character designs, and even though people will say up and down how much they look like the Manga I just don't see it. For one, Naoko's artwork even within SM is inconsistent as hell. The artbook pictures and the actual manga panels have a lot of differences in style imo, such as how the panels have more range in expression and the artwork is usually very blank-faced like fashion photos, which I imagine was the point- and as a result of s1 and 2 clearly trying to emulate that style , which they did poorly, they look mediocre and have very limited expression, sacrificing that in order to make them all look like models.
I'm not incredibly happy with the S3 designs- for one I can't help but look at SSM's fuku and think ''What the hell happened'', it looks so droopy and lumpy (especially in the transformation sequence) and the shoulder 'wings' fall so flat, while the manga and 90's anime seems more structured and magical. It also really bothers me that Saturn's skirt is so weirdly long in comparison to the rest- especially with her boots, sleeves and gloves which are already bigger by design, the skirt really throws off the proportions to me.
But altogether, the S3 designs work better in animation than the rest, have more emotion and look more similar to Naoko's recent artwork (even moreso in the updated s3 designs that they use for merch) and it's the only Crystal season I've watched multiple times, it's not perfect (Usagi looks real weird in a few parts of the last episodes) but it's solidly 'fine' to me.
Similarly to 1 and 2, the BIGGEST drawback of Crystal is that throughout all of it, they keep recycling the transformation and attack sequences of the 90's anime. My favorite attacks of s3 are the ones that are entirely new, and my favorite parts of the transformation sequences are the parts that were altered and extended from the 90's version. I want something NEW. The transformations in the manga are shorter but seem really powerful to me, like the way they throw up their brooches/pens, cross their arms and shout their transformation phrases! I think they would look SO good with more detail in animation. I do like that s1 and 2 featured less stock footage, I like seeing them attack in real-time and I want more of that.
My opinion is that they should spend maybe a year of hard, serious planning and designing, come up with character designs that fit both the manga and 90's anime to attract both fanbases, pacing, etc, good funding and make two movies for EACH season- maybe one season per year, so two movies per year. Literally scrap everything and start all over. I'd rather wait five years for an entire movie series of the manga instead of the ridiculously inconsistent and mediocre mess we have right now. If the Dream and Stars movies are good.. well that's great but that still means there's three garbage arcs before it, making it incomplete to me.
Maybe make short films of the short-stories between films, and when it's all done, make an anime for Sailor V.
But we all know that's never going to happen.