I think the hull itself is pretty promising but this is under armed for its size.
Compared to contemporary foreign FFGs of similar dimensions and displacements, the 054B does fit pretty well with its armaments (i.e. the standard package of 1x naval gun, 32x VLS cells, 8x AShM launchers, 2x CIWS). Besides, beyond the obvious radar and sensor systems upgrades from the 054A, the 054B made great improvements in terms of open-sea, long-voyage endurance capability as well.
What the 054B FFG does lack compared to her US&LC peers is the capability to multi-pack their VLS. This is especially crucial for defending against missile swarm attacks (which seems to be the current preferred anti-ship method of the US with their LRASMs).
With 32x VLS cells that can fit only one HHQ-16 each means that the 054B FFGs can only equip a maximum of only 32x HHQ-16s per ship. Once all of the HHQ-16s have been exhausted, the only hard defensive measures left would be the short-range HHQ-10 and Type 1130 CIWS.
And there's also the Yu-8, which can take a couple of the VLS slots.
Personally, I do hope that future PLAN FFG designs can incorporate 16x UVLS (850mm) on top of the 32x VLS (650mm) being the standard for FFGs going forward. This means that while the 32x VLS will carry their own HHQ-16s and Y-8s, the 16x UVLS will therefore be loaded with a combination of tri/quad-packable medium-range SAMs, long-range SAMs (i.e. HHQ-9), Y-8s and/or AShMs.
Of course, if the 650mm VLS can be made to quad-pack medium-range SAMs as well, then the UVLS can be largely discarded. That means an example loadout of 24x HHQ-16s and 24x tri-packed/32x quad-packed medium range SAMs would do.
~~~~~~~~~~
A quick snippet: @伏尔戈星图 has mentioned just recently that China seems to have really started developing a new type of flame exhaust system, which does consider the compatibility with multi-packing VLS cells.
Perhaps all the drone attacks against sea targets in Ukraine, Israel and the Red Sea have convinced the PLAN WRT the importance of quad-packing medium-range SAMs, even when the SAMs cannot engage targets as far away as HHQ-9s and HHQ-16s.
Not sure whether the 850mm UVLS or 650mm VLS is involved with the multi-packing VLS development, however (feels like the former is more likely). And as always, the usual caveats apply.