As far as the loading times being a "quick fix," perhaps other people also noticed that a number of updates prior to the fix included server back-end work.
MrDDT, take a deep breath for a minute
You understand enough about games to know that fixing the loading times would necessarily have involved back-end work. It's not like they woke up one morning and decided to quickly fix an old problem before they had coffee, it took time, just we weren't necessarily informed of all the minute details involved. I'd love that detail, but not so much because I want to keep tabs, but because it's just really interesting to know how things work.
Also, I'm sure you know enough about games to know that adding a "skin" to a post is completely different than the more substantial changes we'd all like to see at some point. Their artist must have had time on his/her hands, or one of the guides donated some work, whatever. It's a different part of the team than you're talking about entirely. If you didn't know that, then there you go, I have informed you free of charge! You're welcome.
Yes, there are people who like you in game, there are people who don't. I'm sure the same can be said for me. Who cares? Scrape it off and keep playing or take a break. Entirely up to you, just as nobody has ever left the game when you told them to. Some may have on account of clear-cutting, trash-paving, annoyingly antagonistic forum posts, destruction of buildings and bridges bordering on exploiting the mechanics of the game, etc. sure... but not because you told them to go back to ATITD or Hello Kitty or whatever you and yours like to say.
Oh, as far as the 1000's of people... I'm not at all convinced there ever were 1000s but okay, let's say there was. I think a fair number left on account of lag issues in the first couple of weeks, even some who had been in beta. They would be happily surprised with better server stability. A number of others left because they came in under false pretext, they simply didn't understand the game. They saw FFA PVP, started drooling over the idea of happy little gankfests of drama, and then found themselves disappointed. Some didn't even read the FFA PVP part because they just listened to their friend who simply said FFA PVP. They in turn started drooling as well.
They then found out that there is so much more to this game and FFA PVP isn't the main event. Not only were they disappointed to not have the slightest understanding about the game, but they also had drool all over their keyboard.