Kishimoto isnt choking, the manga is gaining more and more readers - not less.
i wouldnt start to find flaws with this arc before you carefully disect the themes present, and themes yet to come.
as for your favourite arc of the Wave country, out of all of the arcs so far in naruto this arc is the closest in the theme.
if you cant see this then you probably wont get past an amatuer writer

not to seem like i'm attacking you or anything but i'm giving constructive critizism but as for sound infiltration it didnt really keep my interest, didnt really have any flares in storyline that made me want to keep reading past the first page