Its a bit funny that you (the thread starter) only mentions what is left out, while skipping what is added (Dragonborn, Eladrin, Tiefling, Warlock)? Each class takes a lot more space now than before - except the full casters that take less space.
Spells - eh I mean powers - are much shorter in description than earlier and more to the point. You have a bit fewer of them, which makes it possible to actually have character sheets with all your spells on them, instead of rifling through the PHB and 132 splat books for the definition of spell x. I mean power x.
I agree that there are actually too few choices you have when selecting powers. For instance the cleric has powers that are either wisdom or strength based. As it is very hard to increase your attack rating, you really need a high primary stat. Having two primary stats isn't really viable. Because of this you will have a cleric with either wisdom or strength as his primary stat. That really cuts off half the powers available to a cleric character. This goes for quite a lot of the other classes as well. (The only classes I have seen that doesn't really suffer from this is the Fighter, Rogue and Wizard. They have secondary stats they are dependant on, but they don't need to be very high.)
I have run three test-sessions and I think the game ran very well. You have the right amount of abilities right at level 1 and before you get too tired of them, you get new powers/feats as you level. Its a bit like everybody playing a cleric power-wise. Which is good, I liked the 3.5 cleric. You could always pull out all the stops and go all-out offensive. Now every character can do that, unleashing all their daily powers if they feel its necessary.