I haven't been to SXSW in 2 years. Three years ago the technology portion of SXSW definitely felt exactly as you described this year's music. Massively unorganized. Massively chaotic. Couldn't really find anything you were looking for, even if you tried.
While speakers and talks were mostly on time, the rest of it was just pure chaos.
Exactly my experience. When SXSWi moved to spread-out venues, it was suddenly impossible to go from, say, the Convention Center to the Sheraton between sessions, and forget about the hotel south of the lake. That signaled to me that it was too big, but they kept making it bigger.
While speakers and talks were mostly on time, the rest of it was just pure chaos.