It's kind of "meh". At least compared to 1st season. I could not put my finger on it, so tried looking at what other say about it, and one good explanation about what was off said that 1st season had more "purpose". I think that practically sums it up, really.
1st season had a lot of weird stuff, and while a lot of it was just for the sake of weird from cinematography point of view, most of it had a purpose as some sort of incentive to keep people working. Or to just show that Lumon is a weird company. But the ending of the season made things somewhat more grounded, I guess, and looks like they tried to use that "groundedness" in 2nd season, which resulted in things not making much sense. At least from perspective of the world we are being presented.
There is that camping trip, which really does not make sense. It could look nice, I guess, but in what world that would make disgruntled employees that want to destroy your company "behave"? If they were just mildly dissatisfied or annoyed - yeah, bonding activities could potentially help (unless they are as "cultish"), but this was a waste of time, and made things worse for Lumon. And that episode dedicated to Cobel? I do not see a purpose there at all, because it did not really tell us much about neither her, nor Lumon, nor the world, nor anything really. Same as a couple of flashbacks (not all of them), that were neither here nor there.
Fans of the show will probably say that this was done for the sake of mystery, and everything will be revealed in the 3rd season, but I find it as a lame excuse. If you just want something that makes little sense, then do things like "Legion" did, where insanity was the blood of the show and stayed that way till the end, and it made total sense there, considering the character(s).
I would say that the show is still visually great, quite aesthetic, and I liked glitching moments. But I am not sure I would care much for 3rd season. I would end it here. Apple does not think that way, of course, because money. I predict it will be worse, though, because they will have to continue the trend of "grounding" things.
