I don't believe knee-jerk reaction or blind fanaticism are traits that occurred in this thread, however, it is good to see that we do think on similar grounds so I don't need to re-iterate about the pros and cons that you presented.
Unless I've missed it, it's worth pointing that you have to remember that we do not know everything about the situation of the developers such as their strains, limitations and so on, therefore we can only comment on the things they do mention or reveal. In this case, when I talked about things such as 3D puddles as an example, I mention this productively together with ideas of how to make it better to enrich the game further, the overall experience. It is also worth bearing in mind that to go into depth of things a discussion has to start somewhere, no matter the detail level of a person's comment.
In the end, no matter what, the core game experience has to be solid, but it is also near equally important is to ensure that all big and small features & elements "synergise" together too in order to make up the games world. A player's actions & choices must have meaning, serve a purpose for self-improvement with glorification and not done for the sake of it within both the race and menus. I believe that when done right, it will result in creating an incredibly crafted together packaged game, something that Forza need more attention. Again, all solved if the developers has more time for less than two years does not always favour them, hence the "holding back".
