Path really seems to be killing it with new (but acceptable) ui features. The last time I remember such large groups of people just accepting dramatic ui changes without loudly complaining was windows 3.1 > windows 95 start menu.
Just out of curiosity, which features are you talking about? I'm only wondering so that I might be able to incorporate them into my own UIs. I did some googling for what you're talking about but couldn't find anything definitive.
So true! Their 'pivot' went under-the-radar for most. They really just went from a 'Private Photo Silo' in 1.0 to 'My Digital Journal' in 2.0.