This happened over at Bungie. After people played Myth for such a long time, and made alot of mods etc... Myth II was created, and a split occurred. Some liked the original better than the second one. Most people liked the physics engine of the first game better than the sequel.
This brings me to my point. When CM2 is released, at first many will drop and play the game, but others will come back, and slowly two camps will form. I wonder, will there be two message boards, for each respective camp? It will be curious to see what happens.