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The one point I will meet you halfway on is the passive attack timer, which is why I outlined one summoned ent in the classlead, and currently exists on trial.
The class was decent. Now it is very good. As always, overtuning will be monitored and addressed. Keep playing it and share results.
Lemming was always superior, but it had an opportunity cost of needing to have a lemming as one of your pets. That's how the enrage system was designed - choices had to be made on what enrages you wanted, depending on the strength of the passives, and you had to make these choices proactively in the midst of a fight. Pre vertigo-nerf, the opportunity cost for lemming was pretty much non-existent for petrify setups, but post-nerf lemming was hard to justify, especially for prep routes, since axes don't even care about rebounding in the first place. With this change, though, this opportunity cost has completely disappeared - you have lemming enrage available at all times without needing it active as a pet. Moreover, with a level 3 artie axe this shield break is gated by the enrage balance (1.5s) not the weapon balance - which effectively makes this a 1.5s shield break plus aff delivery. To my knowledge, this is the fastest of its kind in the game. Sentinel always had this (kind of, it was gated by summon eq which was > 1.6s with diadem), but the drawbacks of having lemming out were at times significant. This drawback no longer exists.
I'm not even sure what you mean by rivestrike's (I assume you mean this) previous utility. I can only think you are referring to rivestrike being able to break both rebounding and shield. With the lemming change to break shield before rebounding, this is 90% irrelevant - on a shielded + rebounding opponent, lemming + plus axethrow always the superior choice for maintaning aff momentum, since axe doesn't care about rebounding. The only times you'd entertain breaking rebounding as a priority is when you need to deliver a spear-gated aff- but even in these cases, lemming + axe venom is so clearly superior for maintaning aff momentum (and it still preps) that this is the generally better option while they drop rebounding on their own. The use for this utility barely exist.
Fly spam was very good against Sentinel before - the vertigo change was a poor solution to this. Now it is absolutely terrible against Sentinel - you have a class balance tentacle at 1.5s. With level 3 axe, you're looking at a 1.5s tentacle + aff ability, that's loopable - one of the fastest in the game. The only equivalent I can think of right now is heila, but this have the drawback of a cooldown. Going from being one of the worst in the game to one of the best in countering fly spamming is quite significant.
I'm not sure why you don't think the eq combos are not an issue. You can now enrage/gaze paralysis, which is fast enough to beat herb bal and maintain aff momentum, at no drawback (besides not assisting prep) - allowing you to completely circumvent clumsiness whenever you have it. Gaze confusion can now be consistently used to stick confusion, which is very strong in the class. Raven/thornspray/snap only existed as a one-time combo due to the summon mechanic, but is now loopable and can fit seamlessly into a burst damage or dismember prep execution - now the only req to doing this combo (upwards of 50% of your health and massive bleed) is undeaf and them being in the forest. A sensi thornspray combo is superior in damage to a sensi non-head skullbash, without the prone requirement. This carries the drawback of hitting other people in the room - but in 1v1, this drawback is irrelevant.
That Sentinels can now have two pets being able to hit with their passives. I'm happy to hear that it seems to be getting reverted to one pet, and it should be - this was the strongest of the changes, and I would've had a lot to say about this.
Upcoming haemo bypass for axe attacks will make parry almost completely irrelevant for one of the fastest preppers in the game. Faster trip is also significant for creating more room in your prep execution and sticking conditions like undeaf, unblind or lock affs more easily- there is a reason why people asked for this buff since the class was reworked. The change to enrage allows you to have passive pet damage aiding your dismember route at no cost - previously it was mandatory to have raven ready, and butterfly was immensely useful, which made it difficult to make room for damage pets. A classlead on faster trap balance going through will make your room setup quicker, and your mobility consequently better.
There is much more that has been given to Sentinel through these changes than what I mentioned - I am only trying to primarily address your points. Every route the Sentinel has was significantly improved with the enrage (and upcoming) classlead. I see people dressing this up as a QoL change, which is not true. The change made Sentinel aff pressure easier to utilize and much stronger in every situation, especially with the lemming and raven buff. I'm okay with these changes - I think Sentinel deserved a few buffs, and I much prefer strong classes to weak ones - but the class was made much stronger than to the extent you are implying. Sentinel will be immensely better after this classlead season than it was before - and since reflexes existed.