Araki wrote:
These days people start throwing the words "filler" and "silce of life" everytime characters aren't punching each other. No matter if something is moving the plot or there's character exposition.
Imagine if DB started these days. It would go like this:
"hey, what's happening in Dragon Ball today?"
"Goku wants Mutenroshi to train him, so he's bringing him some chicks now."
"oh i see, just slice of life filler then. skippable. "