Like I said, they're not perfect and I'm certainly not going to defend them as the best designed addition to the game, but many people have condemned them as game breaking for various reasons when overall they're not really that extremely different from what we had before. The revamp of the HRE and the inclusion of the new building system both were met with severe criticism when first unveiled, largely because they were unbalanced, but with a bit of hindsight we can see that these things have improved certain aspects of the game. I think people should get over this illusion that hordes must be removed and instead focus on how they might be balanced or fixed. That's not to say that there aren't plenty of people doing just that, but there is a rather vocal number of players who have (quite literally) argued with and insulted the mods and developers over the inclusion of this feature and that type of criticism isn't constructive at all.
You make a good point. But there is on thing not clearly seen here (or by many others here). That is, to say a game is "broken" (not my preferred term) really means that, for the speaker, it's no fun to play. Each of us has different tastes and interests, and of course that means that what turns one off, is not a big deal to another. Look back to the old pirate discussions for an indication of what I mean.
Personally, the hordes don't bother me much, although I agree with most of what the anti-horde posters say. My relative indifference is solely due to my not playing much against hordes. Similarly, most players aren't moved so much as I by the naval issues, on which I post ad nauseum.
That said, the point is simply how many dislike a feature, and how much they dislike it. For myself, I really stopped playing (and eventually, modding) after 5.2. It was a severe disappointment to me. What gets me is that the naval game is now worse than in HT (which was no great shakes, either). But at least the game showed improvement over the series from 1.0 through 4.1. Now, it is just worse than before. And I cannot get up interest to play it.
Also, the complaints on unit selection are very much on target. Again, in this respect, an existing feature was simply degraded.
Really, selection and reorganisation have been worse in EUIII than in EUII. This puzzles me, and is not an isolated case. The ledger is clumsier than in EUII, and the maps are incomparable less functional. They look nice, true, but it's a lot more work to get info which, in the earlier game, could be read at a glance, or with the sweep of a mouse.
Bottom line: I am exactly one (1) gamer, albeit going back to EU. Like everyone else, I speak only for myself. But they've pretty much lost me, at least for the time being. It's not a case of angry refusal to play the game, as it was with pirates for a while. It's rather a case of loading, starting, and then realizing I just don't feel like playing it. The fun is gone, for me, anyway. I keep coming here to see what's up, but I cannot even get up the interest in fixing my own mod.
EU-Blah. That's how I feel.