Overall, after using Beryl+AIGLX (and using a couple tweaks to address some stability issues on AIGLX) for the last few months, I’ve found Beryl flawless and feel like I’ve stepped backwards in time when I find myself on a classic 2D desktop. Much of the eye-candy is just that, but much of it is also quite functional: drop-shadows help visually separate a cluttered screen, the bouncy windows give an overall tactile sensation, true transparency seems a mixed blessing, sometimes helping discover buried windows, sometimes hurting the contrast of a focused window, and the application switcher’s ability to display live thumbnails of windows is a godsend. I still haven’t trained myself to use the expose-like window switcher, but I can clearly see its value.

At some level I agree with your assessment, since much attention seemed to initially focus on transition effects (fading, exploding, burning, raining, etc), but at the same time, I suspect much of this was simply exploratory work by people interested in testing the limits of the new WM and making gee whiz features to show on YouTube. However, of late there’s been quite a flurry of actually UI enhancements moving out and even testing of possibly useless but at least original ideas (desktop annotation).

Overall my impression is that people sense this as a much larger paradigm shift than initially appears and are simply in the “warming up” stage prior to wowing the world with a completely new desktop experience. In short, I think your disappointment is perhaps a few months too early.