Redditors /u/IHaveHugeNick and /u/adamleng went bullseye on my thoughts, but I'd still like to ramble a bit on the subject.
Reading the criticism was a weird experience to me. You know that friend of yours who is so kind that you often find yourself grading her more beautiful than she really is? Reading that bit of text was like having someone else say bro, but that nose of hers....
As a lawyer in his mid 20s who can spare only 6-10h weekly to gaming, PoE is that kind of friend.
IE games and CRPGs always held a spell on me, though I'm far to consider myself a pro-gamer on those regards. I can project all the possibilities depth the genre and game engines can provide, but ask me to build an ass-kicker rogue in BG2 and I'll probably spend more time reading stuff on the web than on actual character creator.
That said, if we're ever to see a revival of the genre, I think PoE will be the cornerstone.
It's like the Witcher series. I love the games and the books even more. But they're all smaller games until this third and final installment. Reading IGN and company writing stuff like 'you can chose between Geralt's two swords when fighting monsters' gives away that those editors don't really know what they're talking about it - but they're talking about it!
I'd love another BG2, a stellar CRPG whose spot on the pantheon of great and atemporal games is unshakeable, but did we really have the field for it?
I'm ejoying as fuck the ride PoE is providing me and it's deeply satisfying to see a kickstarter game achieve what it is achieving. It's limited, I know - I concur with everything that's written in said criticism! But it is drawing attention and - more importantly - new gamers to it.
I feel /u/IHaveHugeNick pain when he talks about hardcore gamers. No prejudice here; it's just that they talk about their craft like it's an uninterrupted fabric in gaming history. It is not.
In closure, if you ask be through what prism PoE should be viewed, I'll hint you this. Just look at the subscription rate of /r/projecteternity and /r/baldursgate in the near future. Anything above the historic median is a small victory for the genre and a drop of hope for all of us who expect a new BG2.
Maybe I'm the flawed one here, but I can't take a glance at that friend of mine and not see beyond the crooked nose.