So far, for a fairly developed account on hard mode like mine, the infamous "40 battles with..." feats are far better than in previous Conquest, because GLs. This makes playing Conquest the way i like it: a thematic PvE event where you're driven to use some units more than others with unique boss battles (just did the "invicible Luke" one and it was quite fun, even if i had to try it thrice). In previous conquest, when the focus was on "non GL" units, it was difficult to use those units for your standard 3* progression and you had to find specific nodes to farm those "40 battles" feats, which was quite boring.
Not saying the grind isn't still there and doesn't bug me anymore more, but I find it an improvement.