Everyone says "combat is too slow, speed up combat". So Tydeus makes a few of the animations no longer do nothing during the first 10-20% of their progression (effectively speeding up combat 10-20%), and those same people that wanted faster combat complain.
Here's my question; if you are suddenly getting killed by 1h thrusts all the time, what did you used to do? Not block them and assume they would glance? (which was a good assumption, and is STILL a good assumption in facehug range). You don't see a problem with the fact that 50% of 1h attack options (thrust and right swing) were pretty much a guaranteed glance before?
When fighting a 2h player, you have to be prepared to block all 4 attack directions in nearly every situation. Now the same is mostly true with pole and 1h, and I think it's great. I'm sorry you can't just blindly block right while fighting 1h players anymore; I'm sure you'll adapt and be a better player for it.