Uhm, I don't play masterwork, I only poked my head in here to see what you guys were up to...
To chip in on the discussion.
I think al Putnam is annoyed about is that due to Masterwork's popularity, people are misunderstanding what the game is.
Now, this is not about what your favourite part of DF is, but rather about false advertising, and Toady putting in two years to do a lot of really important things for the game... and getting backlash, because people want a dungeon keeper clone, and are expecting a dungeon keeper clone.
And that makes me sad, and I suspect Putnam as well.
The actual problem that comes with this is the difference between Toady and Meph: Toady lives of donations, and Meph, I assume, has a job and does this as his hobby.
It is in all of our best interests to keep the donation flow to toady strong.
When a certain subsection of players remark to each other that 'yeah 0.40 is nice, but I enjoy masterwork more', that statement by itself is not problematic. However, if they only speak to each other, you get an echo chamber effect, a tantrum spiral if you will: suddenly it's not 'yeah 0.40 is nice, but', but '0.40 sucks', and more rebelious things like 'oh, we should not bother with Toady and vanilla because it's dumb', eventually leading to decreasing donations.
True, Meph has little to do with this, but perhaps, as a subforum, you could make some simple ettiquette to remind each other that despite enjoying masterwork far more you are really looking forward to new releases. I have no doubt everyone has here has an item on the dev list they'll be squeeling for. (like the mentioned sending armies out to defend off-map villages)
To give a push in a more positive direction: Meph, have you already got ideas for the new growths and item clouds?
Edit:
btw, the deep changes that were made are not for adventure mode only. They are most visible in adventure mode, but without it, no significant new mechanics can be introduced to fort mode. The activated world lays the groundwork for sending out armies, receiving more realistic trade goods, fortress mode tavern, having a random group of 9 adventurers with a ring pop up and suddenly you are under constant siege of goblins, fort religion, etc.
Seriously, we've got so many awesome things to look forward to thanks to the activated world.