OK look, the team made a call on trying something different based on pretty valid feedback - like anything in the world 100% of the people will never agree with 100% of the decisions. But for anything to work everyone needs to give it a try, if it doesn't work then we ditch the idea. Its called Test and Learn and is a good approach to have to developing forum spaces.
And on a personal note, please don't take forums for granted, the GT-Four forums all died due to some poor management of them and everything is now on FB. There is no community, no banter, its a very transactional experience and not a good one from an ownership perspective. Just saying.