I've given up on DayZ SA until at least beta...I know it's probably common to hear but these are my current "show stoppers" (and clearly there are many):
The weapons system is incredibly difficult to use. Switching between weapons doesn't always work (mostly due to lag) and some weapons that would seem like weapons can't be used as weapons (wrenches, screw drivers, etc).
Though it's seemingly the most common form of battle, melee fighting is atrocious. It feels like two children closing their eyes, turning their heads, and slapping their hands together.
There are many different forms of movement to understand (not necessarily bad, it's just never fully explained to players):
Simple movement controls behave differently if you don't have a weapon. There is no fast moving while crouched like there is while holding any rifle for instance...instead you just start sprinting. As everyone spawns without a weapon, this is fairly common. This makes an already confusing keyboard/mouse mapping process even hard to understand.
Constant nagging of status indication. I GET IT, I'm thirsty.
Entire cities can be completely void of zombies, loot, or pretty much anything.
Jumping doesn't always jump.
Items can't always be picked up. I've had a character die of freezing because, between 2 different servers (which accrued a 10 min ghosting/server-hopping penalty of course), because I simply couldn't pick up items...like jackets/clothing. This seems due to lag but is a huge problem.
It's not uncommon to be injured because of something stupid that's game/bug related like falling through a floor and breaking your leg with the no ability to respawn...or simply lagging off the side of a tall building.
Zombies glitch through walls/buildings and can seemingly spawn directly on top of or beneath you without warning.
The rendering engine is slow, buggy, and outdated. Even on a top-of-the-line gaming machine (and DayZ's notoriously low visibility setting), I've had to attempt gun fights at 10 fps which is no fun.
Random sounds (often randomly "cut off" mid-sound) play that seem to try to indicate enemy/zombie presence in the area. It's incredibly annoying and gives false positives in terms of audible surroundings.
TL;DR While DayZ is in alpha stage for the foreseeable future (and will be more fun eventually), there is always the original Arma 2 DayZ mod (with an active community) or the Arma 3 equivalent called Breaking Point which are both really fun. I highly recommend trying Arma 3's SC (Sectory Control) mode - it's pure chaos and allows you to learn the game faster.
/rant