You're right that there are parts of this bill not to like, the estate tax stuff for sure and possibly the pass-through rate as well. But, where we disagree are the parts that "punishes expensive areas indiscriminately". Removing the SALT and mortgage deductions are good IMO.

A commenter in another thread posed a hypothetical about a family in CA vs. TX making $250k. Why should the one in CA get a big writeoff because CA has high taxes?

Of course, a state is free to tax it's citizens as much as it likes. But, that tax should not be deductible from state taxes, because it leaves families in other states to shoulder the burden.

Meanwhile, the mortgage interest deduction subsidizes people who can afford houses (in fact it incentivizes buying larger houses, which is also bad IMO). These are not the people who should be getting tax breaks.