Different people like different things, some people loved the abstratcion of 3rd Ed Epic, some hated it, as 40kGamer said, the 4th edition, Epic Armageddon, was arguably the better system. Some will swear 3rd edition WFB was the best (look at the Oldhammer community) while some will say 4th or 5th. (Its generally which ever was out when you were 11 until you started caring more about trying to get laid than model soldiers)
A lot of it is nostalgia, if you're in your mid 30s, then 3rd ed Epic was new and changed the game you knew from your childhood (I suspect Erik is in this camp, the fact he's in a childish tantrum over AoS shows he's not matured since then)
Some people thought both 3rd edition 40K and Epic was great because it streamlined the game, abstracting everything to the bare bones and making a really quick, easy to pick up game. Some hated it for removing the detail. You can't please everyone.
The Games Workshop that did that to 40k was the one that made 3rd Ed Epic too, they've changed since then, look at 40k now, they're adding more and more to it, less abstract rules, more like second edition, heck we can even through grenades now.
If GW are going to change the game, they're going to add more fidelity to it because thats the pattern we've been seeing for over a decade now, a slow return to more detailed game mechanics and so now people are calling it overly complicated and bloated.
You can't please everyone.