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So, it's safe to say that almost everyone is in agreement of Goku's characterisation in Super being a poor representation of who he was in DB and Z. It's more to him than simply being dumb and only caring about a good fight, however, as we'll get into now.
Son Goku
The first underlying problem lies in him actively choosing to fight Beerus despite Kaio's warnings. Given how Goku respected Kaio's wishes not to fight Freeza on Namek until no other choice presented itself, this is clearly against how Goku has been shown to listen to the opinions of others in Z rather than going purely by what he sees as right. You could make the argument that Goku gained enough confidence in his ability after all he's been through, but that lies in direct contradiction to a characterisation in the first episode that's consistent with his Post-Pure Boo battle mindset:
Episode 1
Time: 4m30s
Context: Goten questions Goku training.
Son Goku: "Yeah. You know how Majin Boo was really strong? I had no chance of beatin' him on my own and it ain't like someone like that couldn't show up again, so I gotta keep trainin' just in case."
The manga has a more trimmed down version of this too:
That said, Goku being so eager as to fight Beerus despite Kaio confirming him to be far stronger than Boo, and not even starting out in SS3 in both the manga or anime (and even in the BoG movie, being as arrogant as to think about powering down to SS2) goes completely against what even Super had set up and left consistent from Z about his character. Not only that, but we have Goku not even remembering proper manners when Beerus shows up.
Compare that to a far younger Goku remembering his manners when meeting Bubbles and believing him to be Kaio.
As far as more parts of the BoG, they at least had a payoff to Goku's promise to get a job after the fighting was done and have him not be satisfied at a power up not brought about by his own efforts, so it isn't a complete flanderisation of his power.
It's in the FnF Arc where we get perhaps the dumbest change in his character, being this new trait of Goku letting his guard down. This was nothing more than a contrived way of nerfing Goku in situations where he could've finished things when not only has it been established time and again he's a skilled martial artist who's highly perceptive and doesn't allow lesser opponents to catch him off guard (dodging all of Jheese and Butta's attacks, dodging Yakon's blades despite the surprise factor) but the only time in which he's actively caught off-guard by an opponent not far stronger than him in Z was with Majin Vegeta, someone still equal to him in power and speed as well as having given him no indication the event would happen.
Bigger problems start to arise in the Universe 6 Arc in which we get a clear display of Goku's flanderised characterisation as a moron outside of battle, only scoring half marks in the exam:
This shows a clear misunderstanding on what Goku's meant to be. His early self was naive to the world outside what he knew, yet clearly grew in knowledge the more he journeyed. His knowledge of the world was what was limited, not his mental capacity. In fact, this would go against some of his early training in which Roshi taught him the value of academic knowledge enough that Goku learned to count properly in a few months.
Then, we get more of Goku being way too arrogant compared to his Z self:
As Goku said, there was no knowing when an opponent like Boo could show up in his own universe. He has no benchmark for Universe 6's warriors yet, so being so overconfident is completely out of line for even how Super's start established his character.
We then get the battle against Botamo. Leaving aside how it took Goku a fair bit of time to catch onto Botamo's ability being so similar to his previous opponent of Buyon, we see Goku sensing and casually dodging Botamo's Ki blasts.
On one hand, this is good in portraying Goku's skill and fine-tuned Ki sensing. On the other, it's ridiculously inconsistent with the whole off-guard trait that was lazily introduced. Moving on to the battle against Frost, we see yet another addition that doesn't match up to his previous characterisation - being a slow starter when it comes to warming up.
There's no case in Z where I can cite Goku, base state or not, as needing time to warm up. Did he need to warm up against Raditz? Against Nappa? Against the Ginyus, or Yakon? The only times when him warming up are mentioned are during the Freeza and Cell fights, the former case being a life-or-death battle in which all the Senzus had been used up and made conserving stamina very important, whilst the latter was a case in which he went in fully aware he'd probably need to rely on Gohan and decided to at least get a good scope of Cell's power because of that. There's no need for this warming up, or similarly starting off in base against Hit. This would seem to be a callback to his Tournament and Battle levels in the 22nd TB, a callback that is artificial in its implementation when not taking into account how that was before he learned to properly control his power as Popo made apparent.
Then we get the Hit fight, in which Goku displays the skill we'd expect of him in countering the Time Skip:
This would be good if not for him also starting off in base despite having already seen a SSB Vegeta who's raw power was still above his SSJ form get wrecked by Hit. Then, at the end of the match, Goku quits in a manner that's completely against what his character was in the original manga.
Bringing up him quitting against Cell isn't a valid comparison when in that case, he realised he couldn't win and that Gohan was the only shot they had. Here, he had the advantage against Hit and his reason for quitting was asinine. Goku has already fought assassins in Taopaipai and Tenshinhan, the latter of which was going all-out in a tournament like this. What exactly did he expect to be different outside a tournament. His desire to see Monaka fight is also inconsistent as, despite there being many other reasons for his choice, he did actively want to fight the Artificial Humans and actively test his limits against strong opponents as spelt out by Vegeta in the "You Are Number One" speech. The only way him quitting against Hit would work with his established characterisation would be if it was after both had been brought to their limits and Goku had realised Hit would win.
In the Future Trunks Arc, we get one of Super Goku's biggest cases of incompetence in not using the Zen-Oh Button quickly. Yes, Goku has in the past preferred not to resort to cheap options against a foe such as not wanting to use the Potara against Pure Boo. We also see him not ignore common sense in his critical thinking skills such as using boiling water against Murasaki or Roshi's sunglasses to counter Ten's Taiyoken, as well as not being so overly prideful as to avoid the best option in a seemingly hopeless situation such as using the Genki-Dama. That said, it makes little sense why he wouldn't use this once brought close to defeat by Zamasu and Black, even more insulting in the anime when this happened twice.
The anime added a nice scene showing that Goku still cares about his family in him getting enraged at hearing Black killed the Chichi and Goten of his timeline. However, even this moment is limited by giving Goku a rage boost when such things were a trait unique to Gohan and any other Saiyan benefiting from it weakens Gohan's character as a result (though this case is at least far better than MY BULMA!).
We then get incompetence in Goku mixing up the talisman with a coupon for the Mafuba. With how Goku has been portrayed prior as catching on to minor details, this mistake prior to going into a battle where he may die is completely unfitting.
In the manga, we then have Goku infamously mastering Super Saiyan Blue's power be condensing it inside himself. This is a pretty major contrivance when he never tried doing so prior despite Vegeta saying he realised Goku had caught on to this possibility, though I at least appreciate that this ties back to Popo's previous training on controlling his power and Kaio's training focusing on advanced Ki control, as well as being a logical step when Goku mastered basic Super Saiyan in order to mitigate its flaws.
All these pale in comparison to his actions in the Tournament of Power. We already start off on a bad note with not only the Goku who took on the Red Ribbon Army and quickly realised two thugs in West City weren't going to help him not catching on to that he's being robbed, but his skills being nerfed so much he managed to get scraped by a bullet, something that wouldn't happen after the first two arcs of Part 1.
This is even more insulting to Goku's portrayal as a great martial artist when he's even shown knocking one of the gunmen away with a finger skilfully.
To add a positive, Goku does at least show some humility more in line with his original self.
We then have Goku reacting casually and confidently to the doom that could await Universe 7, despite Beerus pointing out Toppo already being a match for him.
This is not how Z Goku reacted to situations, always being aware of the danger that came with an impending threat.
Fortunately, Goku thinking of having Freeza be the 10th member and rationalising his decision is one moment consistent with his characterisation of critical thinking and viewing actions in the bigger picture.
And then we get on to the actual tournament, in which Goku shows how much his intelligence has been plot nerfed in not using Shunkan Ido to save teammates from being brought out of the ring. We also have Goku jumping off on his own rather than thinking of a strategy:
Remember how Goku used to be the person to come up with a plan and even spent time to mull over a strategy in taking down Raditz? Apparently that Goku's been replaced by a dumbed-down caricature. Even more insulting is him teaming up with Hit and using Shunkan Ido strategically against Jiren after all that.
The manga then offers one of the most insulting parts to Goku's journey - him only judging things in raw power and having taken into account none of the lessons his masters have taught him.
Goku having fine-tuned his control of physical strength and Ki control enough to condense all of it into his finger against Trunks, or even master both Super Saiyan and Super Saiyan Blue through this. Goku thinking outside of raw strength enough to consider strategy against Raditz...all made meaningless by this scene. This shows that Goku is no longer Goku in Super, he's Luffy disguised as Goku, paying little attention to the lessons taught to him. His anime self is little better too, being caught off-guard even more frequently and holding back against opponents where prolonging the fight due to worrying about stamina would be even more detrimental. Even the payoff of Ultra Instinct is made pointless when he didn't even gain permanent access of the form despite mastering it enough to utilise its true form, even needing training in the current arc to reattain it. He couldn't even learn the one skill he had to in the Tournament of Power that was treat as so important for this arc and the single justification it could have as being more than glorified filler.
All that said, Goku's characterisation in Super is nothing short of a betrayal for all he's meant to be. Whilst we get glimpses of a return to the character we all know, these are few and far between flanderised, hyperbolic takes on his character flaws and artificially made flaws to make him too incompetent for all he's gained on his journey. With all that said, Super's take on Goku's character is an insult to anyone invested in the character by enough I'd rank him as a 1/10 character, 1.5/10 if being very generous.
Next time, talking about Vegeta's handling, a character that whilst having far more traits in line with his growth left intact, is still heavily mishandled when it comes to his core traits.
Son Goku
The first underlying problem lies in him actively choosing to fight Beerus despite Kaio's warnings. Given how Goku respected Kaio's wishes not to fight Freeza on Namek until no other choice presented itself, this is clearly against how Goku has been shown to listen to the opinions of others in Z rather than going purely by what he sees as right. You could make the argument that Goku gained enough confidence in his ability after all he's been through, but that lies in direct contradiction to a characterisation in the first episode that's consistent with his Post-Pure Boo battle mindset:
Episode 1
Time: 4m30s
Context: Goten questions Goku training.
Son Goku: "Yeah. You know how Majin Boo was really strong? I had no chance of beatin' him on my own and it ain't like someone like that couldn't show up again, so I gotta keep trainin' just in case."
The manga has a more trimmed down version of this too:
That said, Goku being so eager as to fight Beerus despite Kaio confirming him to be far stronger than Boo, and not even starting out in SS3 in both the manga or anime (and even in the BoG movie, being as arrogant as to think about powering down to SS2) goes completely against what even Super had set up and left consistent from Z about his character. Not only that, but we have Goku not even remembering proper manners when Beerus shows up.
Compare that to a far younger Goku remembering his manners when meeting Bubbles and believing him to be Kaio.
As far as more parts of the BoG, they at least had a payoff to Goku's promise to get a job after the fighting was done and have him not be satisfied at a power up not brought about by his own efforts, so it isn't a complete flanderisation of his power.
It's in the FnF Arc where we get perhaps the dumbest change in his character, being this new trait of Goku letting his guard down. This was nothing more than a contrived way of nerfing Goku in situations where he could've finished things when not only has it been established time and again he's a skilled martial artist who's highly perceptive and doesn't allow lesser opponents to catch him off guard (dodging all of Jheese and Butta's attacks, dodging Yakon's blades despite the surprise factor) but the only time in which he's actively caught off-guard by an opponent not far stronger than him in Z was with Majin Vegeta, someone still equal to him in power and speed as well as having given him no indication the event would happen.
Bigger problems start to arise in the Universe 6 Arc in which we get a clear display of Goku's flanderised characterisation as a moron outside of battle, only scoring half marks in the exam:
This shows a clear misunderstanding on what Goku's meant to be. His early self was naive to the world outside what he knew, yet clearly grew in knowledge the more he journeyed. His knowledge of the world was what was limited, not his mental capacity. In fact, this would go against some of his early training in which Roshi taught him the value of academic knowledge enough that Goku learned to count properly in a few months.
Then, we get more of Goku being way too arrogant compared to his Z self:
As Goku said, there was no knowing when an opponent like Boo could show up in his own universe. He has no benchmark for Universe 6's warriors yet, so being so overconfident is completely out of line for even how Super's start established his character.
We then get the battle against Botamo. Leaving aside how it took Goku a fair bit of time to catch onto Botamo's ability being so similar to his previous opponent of Buyon, we see Goku sensing and casually dodging Botamo's Ki blasts.
On one hand, this is good in portraying Goku's skill and fine-tuned Ki sensing. On the other, it's ridiculously inconsistent with the whole off-guard trait that was lazily introduced. Moving on to the battle against Frost, we see yet another addition that doesn't match up to his previous characterisation - being a slow starter when it comes to warming up.
There's no case in Z where I can cite Goku, base state or not, as needing time to warm up. Did he need to warm up against Raditz? Against Nappa? Against the Ginyus, or Yakon? The only times when him warming up are mentioned are during the Freeza and Cell fights, the former case being a life-or-death battle in which all the Senzus had been used up and made conserving stamina very important, whilst the latter was a case in which he went in fully aware he'd probably need to rely on Gohan and decided to at least get a good scope of Cell's power because of that. There's no need for this warming up, or similarly starting off in base against Hit. This would seem to be a callback to his Tournament and Battle levels in the 22nd TB, a callback that is artificial in its implementation when not taking into account how that was before he learned to properly control his power as Popo made apparent.
Then we get the Hit fight, in which Goku displays the skill we'd expect of him in countering the Time Skip:
This would be good if not for him also starting off in base despite having already seen a SSB Vegeta who's raw power was still above his SSJ form get wrecked by Hit. Then, at the end of the match, Goku quits in a manner that's completely against what his character was in the original manga.
Bringing up him quitting against Cell isn't a valid comparison when in that case, he realised he couldn't win and that Gohan was the only shot they had. Here, he had the advantage against Hit and his reason for quitting was asinine. Goku has already fought assassins in Taopaipai and Tenshinhan, the latter of which was going all-out in a tournament like this. What exactly did he expect to be different outside a tournament. His desire to see Monaka fight is also inconsistent as, despite there being many other reasons for his choice, he did actively want to fight the Artificial Humans and actively test his limits against strong opponents as spelt out by Vegeta in the "You Are Number One" speech. The only way him quitting against Hit would work with his established characterisation would be if it was after both had been brought to their limits and Goku had realised Hit would win.
In the Future Trunks Arc, we get one of Super Goku's biggest cases of incompetence in not using the Zen-Oh Button quickly. Yes, Goku has in the past preferred not to resort to cheap options against a foe such as not wanting to use the Potara against Pure Boo. We also see him not ignore common sense in his critical thinking skills such as using boiling water against Murasaki or Roshi's sunglasses to counter Ten's Taiyoken, as well as not being so overly prideful as to avoid the best option in a seemingly hopeless situation such as using the Genki-Dama. That said, it makes little sense why he wouldn't use this once brought close to defeat by Zamasu and Black, even more insulting in the anime when this happened twice.
The anime added a nice scene showing that Goku still cares about his family in him getting enraged at hearing Black killed the Chichi and Goten of his timeline. However, even this moment is limited by giving Goku a rage boost when such things were a trait unique to Gohan and any other Saiyan benefiting from it weakens Gohan's character as a result (though this case is at least far better than MY BULMA!).
We then get incompetence in Goku mixing up the talisman with a coupon for the Mafuba. With how Goku has been portrayed prior as catching on to minor details, this mistake prior to going into a battle where he may die is completely unfitting.
In the manga, we then have Goku infamously mastering Super Saiyan Blue's power be condensing it inside himself. This is a pretty major contrivance when he never tried doing so prior despite Vegeta saying he realised Goku had caught on to this possibility, though I at least appreciate that this ties back to Popo's previous training on controlling his power and Kaio's training focusing on advanced Ki control, as well as being a logical step when Goku mastered basic Super Saiyan in order to mitigate its flaws.
All these pale in comparison to his actions in the Tournament of Power. We already start off on a bad note with not only the Goku who took on the Red Ribbon Army and quickly realised two thugs in West City weren't going to help him not catching on to that he's being robbed, but his skills being nerfed so much he managed to get scraped by a bullet, something that wouldn't happen after the first two arcs of Part 1.
This is even more insulting to Goku's portrayal as a great martial artist when he's even shown knocking one of the gunmen away with a finger skilfully.
To add a positive, Goku does at least show some humility more in line with his original self.
We then have Goku reacting casually and confidently to the doom that could await Universe 7, despite Beerus pointing out Toppo already being a match for him.
This is not how Z Goku reacted to situations, always being aware of the danger that came with an impending threat.
Fortunately, Goku thinking of having Freeza be the 10th member and rationalising his decision is one moment consistent with his characterisation of critical thinking and viewing actions in the bigger picture.
And then we get on to the actual tournament, in which Goku shows how much his intelligence has been plot nerfed in not using Shunkan Ido to save teammates from being brought out of the ring. We also have Goku jumping off on his own rather than thinking of a strategy:
Remember how Goku used to be the person to come up with a plan and even spent time to mull over a strategy in taking down Raditz? Apparently that Goku's been replaced by a dumbed-down caricature. Even more insulting is him teaming up with Hit and using Shunkan Ido strategically against Jiren after all that.
The manga then offers one of the most insulting parts to Goku's journey - him only judging things in raw power and having taken into account none of the lessons his masters have taught him.
Goku having fine-tuned his control of physical strength and Ki control enough to condense all of it into his finger against Trunks, or even master both Super Saiyan and Super Saiyan Blue through this. Goku thinking outside of raw strength enough to consider strategy against Raditz...all made meaningless by this scene. This shows that Goku is no longer Goku in Super, he's Luffy disguised as Goku, paying little attention to the lessons taught to him. His anime self is little better too, being caught off-guard even more frequently and holding back against opponents where prolonging the fight due to worrying about stamina would be even more detrimental. Even the payoff of Ultra Instinct is made pointless when he didn't even gain permanent access of the form despite mastering it enough to utilise its true form, even needing training in the current arc to reattain it. He couldn't even learn the one skill he had to in the Tournament of Power that was treat as so important for this arc and the single justification it could have as being more than glorified filler.
All that said, Goku's characterisation in Super is nothing short of a betrayal for all he's meant to be. Whilst we get glimpses of a return to the character we all know, these are few and far between flanderised, hyperbolic takes on his character flaws and artificially made flaws to make him too incompetent for all he's gained on his journey. With all that said, Super's take on Goku's character is an insult to anyone invested in the character by enough I'd rank him as a 1/10 character, 1.5/10 if being very generous.
Next time, talking about Vegeta's handling, a character that whilst having far more traits in line with his growth left intact, is still heavily mishandled when it comes to his core traits.
