Riptide uses the wrong animation, which makes it a lot harder to tell when Riptide is fully charged while flying constantly. It also looks weird/worse.

To replicate, just enchant a trident with riptide and start using it in water or rain. Spam it in rain with good timing to see it stay within the same part of the animation.

The animation used in the beta is the same as throwing a normal trident.  The animation while Riptide is in use (not the one during charging, the one that happens while it is boosting you) does not transfer to other items either, which makes it harder to tell when the hitbox ends if you switch to other items mid-riptide. This same animation also overwrites the charging one. This causes you to stay with the same mid-riptide animation if timed correctly.