I feel it's ironic to say this for The Sandman, but for me the standard woke changes to the source material hurt the story, as they forced Dream to be a much weaker character. Johanna Constantine for instance starts off rude and dismissive towards Dream, since this is the sort of behavior writers use to telegraph strong female character nowadays -- which ended up making the main character feel weaker when he's not taken seriously. Lucien's change was of no importance to the story, but just threw me off a bit from how I pictured mentally the comics.

Episode 6 on the other hand was the highlight of the season as it completely stuck to the source material. Death now being black still felt completely natural, since her personality was the same, and the Endless are not bound to any form.

I'm fine with changes made to adapt a work to a new medium, but changes without any reason just confuse me as a fan of the original work, as I'm subconsciously expecting a reason for the change that never comes