I had a look at the TMP thread on R2E. Quite honestly I am unconcerned. The rules will not succeed or fail on the opinions of the type of people who post there.
The first guy bought them.. had a flick through and made up his mind.. his money, his perogative. He clearly doesn't really get it or doesn't want to get it, so why bother.
The rest, well... I wrote a little article about those chaps which appears in this month's WI.. I think I made my point of view reasonably clear there.
Some people will buy R2E for the pictures... nowt wrong with that, people buy books with pictures of cars, mountains and naked women, they are all nice to look at.
Some people will buy R2E because they buy rule books.. they'll pick up a few concepts, change a few things and take them or leave them.
Some people will buy R2E and play the games.. then they might find that the data provided was for a reason. The games are quick, simple and unamibiguous...
Why does a rocket fly? Because some people have thought through the process very carefully to ensure it does. To read the instruction book for a Saturn V would be very complicated but it DOES fly.
Throw a few dice with R2E and you'll see it flies pretty good. 6 pages of charts will allow you to keep your copy all pristine and new and only for a quick glance when you want to look at pretty pictures
I guess I know what Frothers do when they are looking at pretty pictures