Ritual Caster is the only significant disappointment. I have seen a couple of characters take this feat. One was a high level fighter, low level bard who was obsessed with prophecy and learned all the clerical divination rituals, the other was a tome warlock who just wanted to know more spells to add more utility. Nobody was crying that the feat made these characters too powerful or too versatile. Neither player was clamouring for faster rituals, although I'm sure they would not object. The changes feel unnecessarily harsh to fix a problem that is only a problem on paper and risks impacting niche builds for groups that don't want combat magic to be a focus of their campaign. Even if the number of rituals known at higher levels were to be capped e.g. at X character level, learn another ritual of X level or lower, it would just about fulfil its old purpose
I suspect the goal of ritual caster is to make it easier for characters to perform rituals. So anyone who can cast spells can therefore perform rituals. Then the namesake Ritual Magic feat was repurposed for something different. The intention is to make the feat useful to both casters and noncasters.
The caster benefit is effectively two more prepared 1st-slot spells to use slots for. Albeit they must be rituals which tend to lack synergy with spell slots. The Quick Ritual benefit can be used for any slot levels, but only a few specific spells would benefit significantly.
Perhaps a nonprep caster might benefit by picking up two rituals, that otherwise would be impracticable because the limited number of known spells fiercely reduced which spells are worthwhile to cast.
The noncaster benefit is picking up two specific 1st-slot rituals. And thats it. Noncasters cant waste a feat on two minor rituals, when other feats are nicer.
Overall, while the feat feels adequate, there is nothing impressive about it, and I suspect players will rarely waste a feat on it when better feats are available − which is a problem the designers are trying to fix.
But the main problem is deeper. Inherently, spell-slot spells and rituals dont work well together and need separate design spaces. Spells that take an action cast versus spells that take minutes cast are for completely different situations and different purposes. To some degree, slot spells tend to be for combat when the time pressure is extreme, and rituals tend to be for exploration when the timing is liesurely, but the differences are bigger than that.
The game becomes more useful when there is one list for spells and a separate list for rituals. Rituals dont use spell slots. There can be a different way to determine the success of a ritual, such as a relevant skill check.
Personally, I use Nature for checks relating to elemental magic − earth, water, air, and fire/sunlight. I use Survival for animal life and plant life. I use Religion for planar magic, and Arcana for magical energy and force effects.
The point is, skill checks. Each ritual has a built-in level prerequisite in the form of corresponding slot level. But it is possible to allow noncasters who invest in a skill to find and use instructions for how to perform a particular ritual, and if they are high enough a level, make a skill check to determine if they perform it well.
