Though to be honost dumping light/heavy armor altogether and just having lower/higher defence values based on what they would seem to be, making discrete categories redundant, seems like a better and more interesting solution to me.
Ohh they don't even have that. Light and Heavy armor, in the end, have the exact same defense values rather quickly if not immediately.
My main issue was with blaming a vague group of people (the "casuals") whose definition seems to be whatever makes them easy to blame for whatever the current problem is - not the problems themselves
Casuals are not vague. They are anyone with only a casual knowledge of games who plays videogames which is the vast majority of the market right now. They are not to blame.
Things arn't going to get better simply because Skyrim isn't marketed towards someone who would have preferences like complexity, depth, and worthwhile variety. It is marketed towards a group of people who like familiarity, simplicity, and arbitrary variety. UI fixes are not part of the formula because the UI is already "simple".
It hurts but you cannot fault it for simply knowing its audiance. Which isn't anyone who knows what Eldar Scrolls Arena was. Heck if you remember Morrowind you are already halfway outside the target audiance.
overall in regards to gameplay I think it was a net gain
I think it was sorta a net loss. What could be a deeper game with enriching varied roles you can play... pretty much boils down to you REALLY only doing the same thing in different ways. Where the thought required to be put in the game isn't there (in fact the game's toughest puzzle, is told to you). Yet what sorta makes it even more of a loss is because you know it isn't going to change, this isn't the game making things simple just to add layers with each instalment, nor is it going to really drive anything come with what it already has.
It is what sort of sucks away the enjoyment overtime. You won't even know why until it happens because the game doesn't seem to do anything really wrong.