I can only speak for myself, but based on my interpretation of the rumors (which I followed basically from the very beginning of this whole process), I was heavily under the impression that - aside from the 360 tunnel - this was going to be a mostly practical/physical sort of ride experience, or at least more than, say, Gringotts ended up being. Phrases like "best of both worlds" and "good balance of techniques" were liberally thrown around by numerous people in-the-know. I'm not blaming anyone but myself for reaching that conclusion and letting it heighten my expectations.
I do sort of get the sense that the content of the ride's various scenes may not have changed much from the early rumors, but the approach used to bring those scenes to life may have been altered to play to Universal's screen-strength, instead of what may have initially been an intention to do more stuff "for real," so to speak. I might be way off base, but it's just a hunch.
And I'm still looking forward to the ride! As long as it delivers the King in a decent finale scene, I will likely be satisfied.