My view: Opus and Sonnet 5 made serious regressions in how they speak to the user. There's a constant stream of complaints about it on Reddit and other forums. The gist is Opus 5 feels like it needs to present itself as smarter than it is, pushes back on the user, and is always on a high horse. Almost like you made a mistake by asking for what you asked.

My recommendation: Use Opus 4.8. It never went away. It's still just as good for most work IMO. I've read Opus 4.6 is better for writing/creative use, but I don't use AI for that so I can't comment.

For quick one-shot type work I don't mind using Opus/Sonnet 5. They're good and fast, but even in short brief projects, I can feel the abrasiveness is waiting for me just below the surface. I prefer my agents to listen and at least pretend to care and have some warmth; to act more like a colleague than a stern bot.