Yakusoku no Neverland 2nd Season Episode 4 Discussion

Ok I’m feeling conflicted so here goes...
I’m an anime-only so I know I’m not in a manga readers shoes about feeling disappointed. And I know that ‘adaptation’ isn’t a definitive term, and adaptations can be as close or as far removed from their source material as they want. I also haven’t heard or been around the discourse concerning the manga’s quality, but what I can gauge from here is that after the first arc, the quality fell? And now the anime has missed out a big chunk, basically what constituted a whole arc and some other characters, but the manga creator is behind these changes in the anime? Please correct me if I’m wrong.
But from this, I have thoughts. Firstly, I’m not about to pick up the manga just yet, and not just because it differs. From experience, I’ve found I don’t like consuming a series in manga and anime form at the same time as being in different places of the story confuses me and I’d rather just take in all the shock and twists and turns in one media form, which is especially important for this show. And as much as I’d like to know what happens in the arc they missed out, I’m sure I’ll read the manga later, but at this point I don’t want to look it up at risk of longer term spoilers.
Nevertheless, I can’t help but feel some disappointment. I get that for manga readers it’s annoying not to see an arc animated, especially if that included some favourite characters and that the changes disrupt the story, but I also feel like anime-onlys have been cheated out of a story. Even if the creator didn’t like how it worked out so is reworking it, I still want to consume that version of the story but now I only can in the manga.
But also, I’m not exactly that mad. First off, after that episode and before reading these comments, I thought the episode was great. I was shocked, I was on the edge of my seat, and I like how things played out. And I was excited to discuss theories of where the story may head but all the comments were just about the shift to anime original so nope. But I do think that, if the manga creator wanted to change a story they weren’t satisfied with in the anime, go for it. I’m not gonna suddenly turn my back on the series just because it’s not the same as the manga. And honestly, if I were a manga fan, I might be a little excited. Yeah I may not get what I expect, but isn’t that what the shows about? And now manga fans aren’t watching knowing exactly what will happen, they can watch in suspense and on edge too, and can theorise where the story will head. That is if the story will dramatically change. For all we know, the extent of the manga creators changes may just be shuffling around some plot points, and the same things may happen but just slightly differently. Anyway, I don’t want to jump the gun yet. Let’s just wait and see how it unfolds and then judge based on what we’re given, not on what we expect to get, or what we miss.