I miss the nine alignments, but I think we're better off without them.
Very few people actually go into the world intending to be evil. Even pure sociopaths don't see themselves as evil, merely justified in harming those around them. It's part of why, as a kid, I objected to most of the more serious bad guys in the cartoons. They were being evil for evil's sake. Who does that?
Hitler didn't believe he was evil. He thought he was protecting his race from the deprivations of those he perceived as inferior. The war was a means to restore his great and glorious country to its proper place in the world. Pol Pot didn't think he was evil, despite the execution of over a million people for such offenses as being teachers in the country of Cambodia.
So no matter how evil an enemy is, he should, in his heart of hearts, believe he is, at worst, a normal person in his morality, and for those with strong beliefs, they should view themselves as being good and righteous. Admittedly, that's kind of hard for a follower of Orcus, but outside of badly written comic book villains, who runs around cackling "I'm evil!"
On the other hand, I feel the loss of the LN and CN categories is a loss. Lawful Neutral feels like more than simply unaligned. It is valuing order above all else. No matter how good or evil the authority is, order is always preferable to chaos. Chaotic Neutral having those ideas reverse. (It was great to see the step away from CN just being crazy people and instead make it people who wanted to see a constantly fluctuating, changing situation. That can be harmful to many people, but it could be useful, from some points of view.
So, while I'm nostalgic for the nine alignments, I think, in a way, we'd be better off without any of them. After all, a lawful evil ruler who is doing what he thinks is necessary to keep the subversive element in line and keep his kingdom prosperous will see himself as lawful neutral or lawful good and the chaotic good rebels opposing his tyrannical rule as chaotic evil. After all, they're trying to weaken his kingdom, which will expose its inhabitants to war, strife, disease and all the other horrible things that come with chaos.
And we all know Batman is
all alignments