I actually loved 167. As an animator myself I understand what they aimed for.
It was focused on exaggeration as the battle and intensity increased and I applaud them for taking the risk and trying a different form.of animation.
Believe it or not those so called "retarded" faces take a lot of effort
For me one of the recent worst episodes was Gai vs Kisame. That episode clearly had little budget and effort applied and it showed.
They couldn't even match the detail of the manga, you had blobs for sharks and a tiger that looked like a polar bear. On top of that it was split across the end of an episode and the start of another.
off topic but best episode for me were a mix of the following:
-Sasuke vs naruto (kid series)
-certain parts of kakashi vs kakuza+hidan
-first half of sasuke vs itachi
-Sasuke vs killerbee (omg at that fluidity!)
-First half of Sasuke vs Danzo
-Minato + kushina flashback