Thank God the gaming community is starting to question this corporate insanity... I remember back in the day, every other gaming article or book went out of its way to include a short lecture on the importance of "role-playing" and story. Somewhere between then and now, it became trendy to refer to such elements as "fluff"! To me that sounds like Orwellian doublespeak calculated to sell new rules. Ironically, the only things that endure between some edition changes are story and world background, so I would have to argue that those ingredients are the real "crunch".
Now don't get me wrong-- I love hack-n-slash as much as anyone, and I finally got converted to 3e in 2003. As I understand it, 1st-ed. lasted some 11 or 12 years (I wasn't around for that), and 2nd-ed. was also on for about 12 years. Why is 4th-ed. coming out after only 8.5 years? This is an art, not genetic engineering or artificial intelligence technology. 3.0/3.5 was supposedly scientifically-formulated, and it's pretty brilliant. But I really hope that today, no one buys the idea that the system is ever going to be "perfected". Are gamers going ADD? (I thought we would be more likely to go OCD than ADD!). Have they bought into that Mayan calendar stuff?!
God willing, I will continue to play separate 2nd ed. and 3rd ed. campaigns until 2012. The new Paizo adventures look good; I will support Paizo products as long as they stick to 3rd-ed.