Hashirama was right: this world is always warring. The individuals on this forum that enjoy a chapter and the people that dislike it are constantly warring and trying to verbally one-up one another. I admit, I don't like really like seeing people complaining about the manga (though I don't mind people complaining about individual characters), but seeing as this is a discussion thread, complaints are part of discussion. I will just say, however, that no one here is the author of Naruto, and you could not make the story any better, because then it would stop being "Naruto." We as fans have biases/fantasies of what we would like to happen, but that doesn't make us editors or mangaka ourselves.
In terms of the chapter, I gave it a 4. I can appreciate people's concerns that the scale of power was ramped too high. At the same time we have to realize that these were the two strongest shinobi after the sage of the six paths. The end results of centuries of specialized breeding to preserve/augment bloodlines are Hashirama and Madara themselves. The ultimate eye techniques and the ultimate body techniques. Naturally, their techniques are on a scale beyond the regular ninja. The usage of shuriken, swords, exploding tags are made obsolete before their abilities. And I think this ties in well with Sasuke's "what are shinobi" question. Because then we ask ourselves, can these two men that are compared to gods even be considered "shinobi" anymore?
I don't advise comparing chapters and fights now to chapters and fights when the manga first came out. It is unfair to compare fights between genin, chuunin hopefuls, and jounin, to fights between the two avatars of the two concepts of the first "god of shinobi." And also, both of the main characters of this manga are the current avatars of their respective concept, and have displayed abilities accordingly. Naruto and Sasuke also forego fighting with shuriken and swords in serious fights in favor of Susanoo and Bijuu mode. It's the same concept. They are now going beyond the realm of "shinobi." Hashirama was apparently a sage, just like Naruto. His eyes changed color from black to gold, and he also gained the facial markings of a sage. That, and he said "senpou," which really leaves out any room for argument. It is not the same as Tsunade's mark, as her technique involves releasing a seal, whereas sage mode is a different form of fighting altogether.
Lastly, I was not too keen on the idea of Hashirama and Madara having met as children. Kishimoto could have used a less blatant way of showing that history is repeating itself. It's almost as if everyone within a relatively close age group knows everyone else within that group, which is absurd. But, this storyline does have some potential. I await to see where Kishimoto takes it.