While some aspects of the upgrade are not finished yet, overall it is a great improvement. The spam level ought to fall through the floor.
The extra touches will be added back in. If the time was taken to do it beforehand the upgrade would have taken longer (and people would have complained about that as well).
The new look is different, and will take a little getting used to. To compare it to a different forum is a little unfair, though, seeing as how TF is sort of stark naked of eye candy just yet. Give it a little time.
I agree, it ain't fair comparing one forum to another. I think it looks great as for eyecandy, could use more, but so far, it's great. Hopefully some Avatars come up, and I would be willing to reload mine.
Still, all in all, great job.