Doof,
I feel the reason why quite a number of people feel frustrated is simple. The usual way software development proceeds is the following:
1) Get a big number version out like MC9.0
2) Let users use it intensively and listen to the bug reports
3) Fix the small things and make the product more stable and more perfect and get small number versions out such as 9.01 or 9.1.
4) Maybe you can include some new, but small changes.
5) Get this version on the market and let it there for 6, 12, 18, 24 month.
6) Work behind the scenes on a new big number version.
In this case J River introduced a 9.1 version with radical interface changes introducing many new bugs, but did not fix the many bug requests submitted by users.
I feel this is the reason why some users felt frustrated. It is a big difference if you submit a feature request for weeks or if you submit a bug for weeks and it doesn't get fixed for months. It might be just a minor number of bugs, but if they happen to be in an area, where main stream development is not taking place, sometimes users have to wait for a very long time.
I did not have myself such problems, but I noticed quite a number of users that reported bugs again and again and nothing happened.
I also feel J River should take the review from Cnet really seriously. I remember the reviews for version 7 and 8. They were much better!
And from another angle: Even Microsoft had to learn it the hard way. Years ago they used to bring very buggy OS or apps to the market. In recent years this has improved a lot. You could use NT4, W2K, WXP, O97, O2K, OXP right out of the box.
Usually, if I test a new application and it's buggy it goes directly to Recycle Bin, unless it's really a great app such as MC9. But not everybody is so forgiving!