I haven’t played since before Wizards started pushing Commander, at that time called EDH. I felt the Standard Format was a perfect setup to keep the game fresh and innovative while still making money, and the Legacy Format was perfect for the people who had cards that are no longer in Standard. I think the Commander Format killed a perfect system, and Wizards/Hasbro are just trying everything to make money and keep the game mostly unplayable with the licensed tie-ins.
Originally, they were treated as players. A damage spell that could hit a player could be redirected on resolution to damage their planeswalker instead. This led to some pretty dumb situations when rather than declare a spell targeting the planeswalker, you would declare it targeting the player, essentially tricking them into thinking the planeswalker was safe and allowing a spell to resolve, only to redirect the damage after the spell is allowed.
Creatures having to be declared attacking a planeswalker specifically made the game tedious as well.
The fact that you have a game-breaking permanent on the board that you have to turn your attention to immediately even if you’re way ahead in the game, it just feels worse than stabilizing the board and turning the tide. And then they have to keep making new, more powerful ones to get people to buy new product.