What we have is a handful of trolls and fans who think that because "A" of ME3 is off, when "A" of ME1 was awesome, it must just be the most horrible game ever.
Same things happened to GoW3, the entire campaign leaked months before the game came out, it was horrible. If you listen to the people it'll just ruin your own experience. Decide if it sucks when you actually play it.
As for the winning formula, that's just a matter of opinion. Saving the galaxy and having everything be hunky-dory is great, yeah, but it's boring. You shouldn't be able to do that in any end of the trilogy. But ME3 is trying to bring a whole new level of it. People will die no matter what you do. I personally find it fascinating(and have not read any spoilers past that, surprisingly), and am very interested to see how it plays out.
For the OP: Avoid the forums, youtube, and any other site that offers information on the game and allows comments. You'll be fine. The Hype train will kill the game for you, trust me.