Criticism - the team is trying to make a much better version than the GOUT. In the end, if I understand your explanations correctly, it would probably have the same amount of grain unless they made it very blurry. However, I think you're being a bit hard on them. I totally support the X0 project myself, so I'm a bit biased.
You should switch the screenshots back (and make them links rather than images,) it looks much worse now IMO.
EDIT: Sluggo's post below hit my opinion right on the nail