Hello!
I must say that Im also one of those old timers who curse at the new videogamers (who skate on my lawn) and I agree wholeheartedly with OP.
I remember as a kid getting Exile 2 on a demo disc from my fathers work and hell did I play that much! However, the last game I bought was Blades of Exile as the demos for Avernum didnt do much for me (the isometric view wasnt what I expected I think, I'd rather go with the simple 2D one, besides going from 6 to 4 characters bummed me out too).
Anyways, my point is this seeing that Spiderweb are doing a remake of the old Exile games (I hope they will do II and III too?) I really hope they're going back to its roots only using an updated engine. Sure I can get used to the isometric view and the 4man party but OP is correct, the fact of the matter is that I've read a handfull of forumposts similar to him about Avadon and I dont even know if I should give Avadon a try (I prolly will though) because of what has been said about it.
Seems like the majority of players today dont want to read in their games, they dont want storytelling, they dont want character depth or complexability. They want games like DA2? Well not really, DA2 may have its fanbase but overall the community who bought it are frustrated over how bad it was. So what does that mean? Go back to the roots! I sincerely hope that Jeff and his crew stand true to the Exile saga and dont "dumb it down" like most other game developers do.
Also I saved that picture you had OP, I see the filename and know where you got it from, kudos fellow anon! Oh and let me add: TERRIBLE CONSOLE PORT DUMBED DOWN FOR ADHD KIDS, RAAASGH GO FOR THE EYES BOO, GO FOR THE EEEYEES.