I think a lot of these complaints stem from people being too used to oblivion and it's ways.
The UI is something you'll just have to learn really, I think it works really well! There's certainly a lot worse out there.
Also, things about fetch quests and horses dying easily...surely that's what RPGs are about and the quests will surely get more varied as time goes on, I'm only level 7 but I've hardly had any fetch quests. About the horses, have you ever tried launching a horse down a 6ft drop? Well course it's going to die! It has you with your 300-odd weight on it landing onto solid ground in most cases = broken legs and death.
Seriously, there ARE some valid points but I think most of these "complaints" are just things we all need to get used to. Colour palette for one - the whole idea of the game is get across how rubbish people's lives are at the moment so of course it's going to be dull and grey. Besides, it's nice to have a new setting where things aren't bright and colourful.
Overall Skyrim is progress in the perfect direction in my opinion and it's really starting to prove the power of this generation's offerings.
/rant over
This is true, I'm incredibly nostalgic about Oblivion, and that's something that's keeping me back from really getting to love Skyrim with all my heart. Call me a bland, boring person, but I liked the cosmipolitan "generic fantasy" world of Cyrodiil, and I do miss it. But we're in Skyrim now, and I really want to love it as much as I do Oblivion so even though I have complaints about feel and colour pallete, I'll immerse myself into it as well as I can. I'll miss verdant, cosmipolitan Cyrodiil, but that's why I'll always keep my Oblivion disc handy.