The way that first episode is a modern version of the old show with He-Man being full on super hero, the running through of Skel, the attention to details like Marlena knowing her son's true nature, Randor's dismissal of Adam's character and the end of ep 5 where Adam gets stabbed... This feels EXACTLY like playing with action figures and He-Man is at the center of the story.
Plus... The taking He-Man of the board for a period is a way to break out of the formulaic nature of MOTU. I know... This is but one way to do such a thing. It's like in JLA or Avengers stories where to even have a story you have to find a way to nullify or take out BIG GUNS like Superman, GL, Wonder Woman, Thor, Iron Man ect. Yes, people have issues with that and it's one of the methods to make stories with superemely powerful characters work/have stakes/consequences that is maybe too common but it works.
Also, to modernize MOTU there needs to be more development of the supporting characters surrounding your main hero or heroes. The Mike Young show did small steps to do that. There, again, the character that was most ripe for having a strong arc based upon the history of the franchise was... Teela. Her relationship to the Sorceress, her relationship with Duncan, her relationship with Adam/He-Man was grist for a lot of drama in that reboot. But there's only so far you can go when you have to also give Skeletor and He-Man/Adam some shine so I think Smith solved some issues by getting both out the way to get the ball rolling, yet at the mid point of the season Skeletor and Adam are back to prominence in the story.
That's my view.