Because the interface is changed and cleaned but the functions are still there... maybe it is time to read the handbook?
Here's my take on the new S Note over the old. The old was dated looking from the day it was released. All the functions were in your face in tool bars and menus whether you used them frequently or rarely. Having all the tools, options, and rulers shown all the time also consumed a lot of screen real estate. The new version's cleaner and the functions used most are prominent with others either a menu or long press away. It's also infinitely faster when doing anything from saving to formula calculation.
To me, being able to use transform after-the-fact takes away the need to figure out in advance what I'm going to do with a specific note I'm creating. Not all my notes are equal and some end up being irrelevant so having to go through the gymnastics of turning them from ink-to-text in real-time which, with iffy handwriting, is time consuming and prone to error is a waste of time.
As said previously, now that S Search can search on handwriting I rarely convert my handwritten notes to text. Most of the time I'll convert excerpts if I need to reference them in an e-mail or more formal document. Before Scrap Book I used the old S Note to collect ideas and content. Now I use S Note almost purely for notes and Scrap Book to collect ideas and content to support them. Neither S Notes or Scrap Book files can be viewed on anything but a Samsung device so everything anyone here creates that's destined to be shared needs to be moved to a more accessible format. If I know I'm going to be using a bunch of content in a "real" document to be viewed by others I use a faux-Office app (Hancock's now my favorite) and a keyboard. Meeting notes, on the fly ideas, and Action Memos are great with handwriting as an input method. Other than that and for anything lengthy it's a BT keyboard for me.
Everyone uses their devices differently, has different views on handwriting for data entry, and different criteria for what they save/collect and how. So there's no wrong way really. I totally agree with you that the majority of "the new S Note sucks" posts are from people that haven't taken the time to figure out the changes or logic behind them. The OP's issue seems to be that with the introduction of transform as the primary way to convert ink-to-text he misses the direct text input that existed in the old version.
Other than OP's ink-to-text methodology change issue there's nothing I've noticed missing from the new S Note compared to the old. And being able to use S Note for Windows (which only works with the new S Note format) to copy and paste from my device-created S Notes in to desktop Word and Outlook is a God send. So to each their own but people not happy with the new S Note owe it to themselves to invest some time to figure out Samsung's changes and the logic, which is fairly consistent, behind them.
