Ok we know the new military system is still buggy. There's still players who have managed to make legendary heroes, so that's alright, even if it does take a lot more work than before.
Dwarves don't level up their stats from things like pump operating or milling anymore, and that's a disappointment, but I guess it's all part of the new version and a change in gameplay to get used to.
However, let's look at some of the artifacts my dwarves have built for me so far. They've made a few legendary gems, a necklace, an earring, a chest, a mace and a pike that I can think of off the top of my head. A mace and a pike, yeah! But ... jewelry?
Let me tell you the most disappointing thing though. Did any of them menace? Did any of them have spikes? They did not. Did the chest - the most complicated artifact any of them have made yet - menace with spikes of dog leather and iron, with wood inlay of menacing spikes and a picture of something that also had spikes and was menacing? No. It did not. Granted, the craftsmanship was exceptional, and it was a very nice chest. But it had a picture of one of the other dwarves' epic gem inlaid into it! Did the gem menace with spikes? IT DID NOT! It did not menace with spikes. It had no spikes that were menacing. In fact there were no spikes, nor spike-like objects on it at all. I would go so far as to say that it was about as un-menacing an artifact that I've ever seen.
I swear if my dwarves start carving pictures of flowers into their artifacts, I'm flooding the whole map with magma and going to back to something that menaces. With spikes.