Great first issue! It took them long enough to start addressing the disturbing aspects of Krakoa. I will be getting the upcoming issues for sure.
Yeah, I don't see a difference in the two Crucibles either. I found it wrong and overly violent then and now. It made me laugh at Xavier's line about the "upgraded morality" of mutants. Yeah sorry, any culture that has a gladiatorial bloodsport arena is not upgraded in its morality, I don't care if the they are revived after it. Same with having a "pit" for its rulebreakers.
This issue also made me question the whole reason for the Crucible in the first place, in that it was meant to prevent former mutants from committing suicide and overloading the queue, while in the meantime you have mutants killing themselves for the funsies or due to peer pressure.
Yes, I agree with all of this. Vita and Spurrier should have been brought on from the beginning and these questions and the skepticism of more characters should have been addressed a lot sooner.