For me, the time trial is the most pure and fair discipline there is. The past decades the time trial has been kicked to the curb far too many times. I don't think in this era the climbers should feel disadvantaged, rather the opposite. Not only are there generally speaking far more climbing kilometers compared to time trial kilometers, but many of the time trials feature climbs in them as well. Europe obviously has mountains, but most of it is flat or hilly. In that sense mountain stages are over represented. Also a GT should be for the best allrounder, good on the flat, hilly, time trial and in the mountains. If you lose 4 to 5 minutes in one time trial and only gain 30 seconds in 4 mountain stages, then you simply don't deserve to be the winner of a GT, imho.Stage 2, Grand Colombier, Meribel and ITT are probably the most important stages on paper.
There are many stages with many hills and it looks like a nice route to me. Putting a trio of medium mountain stages in week 1 was really great.
Traditionally in the Tour and sometimes in the Giro they put many flat or power like stages in week 1 and 2. Leaving the climbers at disadvantage. On top of that there used to be a long flat TT in week 1. Practically eliminating the climbers before they arrived to the mountains. In this forum, members keep talking about the nice balance between the flat stages, ITT and mountains when the routes come out. But the position in which you put the stages is huge for climbers. In that respect, the Vuelta has benefited the climbers over time. But for once, in my lifetime so far, we can see if the climbers take advantage of this route if the diesel engines arrive at the race unprepared. You need to be in top shape from day 1. If climbers don't take advantage of this opportunity they can get burned in the last TT. Week 3 looks very hard, but what's new. Recovery has always been an issue at the Tour.
But i think everyone can agree they need to mix things up more. I hope i never have to watch a Tour again, with 7 flat stages for a mass sprint, in the first half of the race. If a sprinter can't manage to get over one climb, or survive one mountain stage in the first week, then maybe he isn't good enough for this level and has no place in a GT or maybe should consider moving to the track.