I like my fresh new Trek, and as a half-naysayer with this season, this episode worked for me. I felt sympathy, sadness, elation, anticipation.
The new Assimilation process is genuinely scary. It makes our heroes feel helpless. We have more personal connection to these people than some other movies, FC for example.
I also find it satisfying as a coda on our three phases of Borg: the lost souls of season 1, the Borg "other" in season 2, now the pure, terrifying Borg. It all works.
Matalas fixing things: some were unnecessary, but the E-D restoration seems perfectly sound. No qualms here.
The saddest part: Shelby was one of the finest female characters of the first 30 years of Trek: strong, intelligent, threatening. She broke stereotypes. They cast a blonde in this role! Do you know how stereotyped women were in 90s tv and in this ST Era?? Sad to see you go Shelby.