Finally a good critique of Duolingo, couldn't have written it better myself. A fresh take separate from the cliche everywhere on the internet that you can't learn an entire language on Duolingo itself which I've heard a thousand times at this point. (Currently "learning" French on it, but going to quit cause have been guilty of cheat-streaking myself).
Yes, the social aspect is trash. The "path" is trash. The leagues/incentives don't make sense. It's just a bad app. This blog made me realize that it could possibly be better in concrete terms. And without even going against their bottom-line. Like, it could still be gamified and what-not, but BETTER. But it isn't. It is just a poor design. YES, language-learning takes effort and many different sources, and YES Duolingo-like apps can only hope to be like a SNACK, but they could still be much better, ugh.