I'd once heard that VS was one of Microsoft's most potent assets for attracting developers, that rounded-off controls with some margins made buttons and other clickable elements more identifiable, and that strong keyboard bindings were preferable to toolbar clutter.

I don't really have much of an opinion, these changes are so subtle it's hard to care and I don't use VS anyway, but I'm surprised at the strong reactions and lack of advocacy for the above.

Of course it's perennial that a lot of users react negatively to change, which makes sense, too.