How are these expectations unrealistic? It's unrealistic because MS can't accomplish these things, but RIM, Google, and Apple can? Who cares if 10 year old applications are going to get broken in WM7? If WM7 is a success, there will be developers developing whatever is needed. That's a non-issue
I'm not sure you even read these reviews. I'm not sure you even know what you're talking about. All these reviews are saying is that essentially all WM6.5 is, is a new home screen and a new start menu on top of WM6.1. That's it. It's not a new OS, it's not a game changer, it doesn't change anything.
What are you even talking about?