My new formula for reading your posts is
1ps+1.75fp+1.25pf
ps=prelude sentence
fs=factual paragraph
pbs=pure fiction
I'm still trying to figure out if the quotas change on major holidays, but the sampling is still small.
I think your observations are apt; they were indeed tense and at that stage I was one of the fanboys of the beta brigade doing his best to rebut some of the reviews, including After Eight's. But the unsold games go hand in hand with the fact that - in my opinion - it really wasn't a good game. So do bad reviews.
The discussion points that followed were on how much the game improved with the patches. Geordie et al have insisted CM:SF is a contender that never got its due - if what you're saying is correct, the reviews may be a big part of that. I'm not so sure. I stated at the time that conceptually the game was flawed.
There have been some people expressing discontentment that some of us who felt this way are now preordering CM:BN, not badmouthing the new game out the gate, etc. I've thought about this and I don't think it is a contradiction. The game engine may well continue to be flawed - I won't know until I've seen it - but it may also be that the modern setting and CM:SF feature set were simply a poor fit for the concept. I just don't know. I'm willing to risk a few of my dollars to find out for myself - and get a metal box in the process...
So the question comes up whether CM:SF was honestly a great game that got zapped by an undeserved bad buzz. I'd like to think the game was judged fairly on its merits - the only thing I will note, which I noted at the time when I was onside, was that games were usually reviewed in their release state and fewer reviewers came back to take a look after the patches/modules. Some proclaimed the game improved.
Any way you slice it, it will be difficult to follow in CM:BO's footsteps, but despite Steve's "most realistic wargame ever made" cries, which ring hollow, I don't think they have seriously tried to do so. If they have, I am so oblivious to that kind of marketing it has passed me by. But just the same, it would be hard to do worse than CM:SF's release, also.