I found my old "grey box" FR books last weekend, and have been reading them again. It's remarkable how sparse the world they describe actually is, even though the books imply a lot of history and background. 4e FR seems to me like a step back towards this, and as much as I like the 3e FRCS, I think it's probably a wise decision overall.
I also don't quite get the complaints about FR lore being ditched: the new gamers coming to D&D and FR are frankly better off without having to digest all the information from the start, and the older ones already have all that. The past hasn't been significantly retconned (as far as I noticed), so if you're someone who loves the background stuff, you can use it all. In fact, if you hate the spellplague and the time jump, you can use the old fluff and new crunch without all that much effort.
As Imaro said, it's easier to ignore canon lore (I personally ignore all RSEs and major events in novels, unless I can somehow work them effortlessly into my campaigns) than recreate the same level of details; I suspect most new DMs do that anyway. Of course, if your players mostly care only about "getting the ball rollin'" and the way to the nearest dungeon, you don't need a lot of details. As a DM, I *need* to prepare at least 30-40 NPCs before each campaign starts (local rulers/nobles, high priests/clergy, guard commanders, innkeepers/shopkeepers and other movers-and-shakers) because my players like interacting with them and often want to know as much as possible about local affairs and personalities (not just the names of the shops, NPCs or what they look like -- history, landmarks, organizations etc. are important "fluff" for them, too). For example, when they're selling gear, they want to role-play it, and it's not as easy as saying "Alright, there's a dwarven merchant named Dougal McGruff who you could do business with" -- they want to know the name and location (on the village/town/city map) of *every* potential merchant they could sell their gear to ("He is rumored to a fence? Alright, we won't be selling to him... but what do we know about the 'Dragon's Den' and its proprietor?").
Now, if I were to run my games in 4E FR, that would be loads and loads of extra work; I wouldn't have the same details I now have (note: some of which I may ignore/rewrite as best fits the campaign). You see, even the Grey Boxed Set included villages and cities with keyed maps; it was a solid foundation to build on, to which every regional book and Volo's Guide added more names, locations and details. How much of that information is "viable" in 4E? All the NPCs are dead, and most of the businesses run by different people, many of the spells and magic items and monsters not converted to the 4E rules... yes, the history is there, to be recounted to PCs with relevant skills, or included in occasional hand-outs, but what other use would I have from all that material? Local customs and laws, trade and politics... all that have probably been affected by the Spellplague. A concrete example: how much lore given in Volo's Guide to the Sword Coast and FR Adventures still applies for Baldur's Gate, with its population of two million or so?
So, in my opinion it isn't exactly "back to the good ol' days of the Grey Boxed Set" type of situation, because that was, to me, a milestone in RPG setting design; lots of flavourful NPCs and their histories (i.e. "Here's how an armorer-turned-adventurer lived his life, and this is what an infamous wizard belonging to Cult of the Dragon does and thinks, and how about this Beholder serving the will of Bane? *This* is why he's allied with the Zhentarim", etc.), rumours, spellbooks, keyed settlement maps, organizations (including merchant companies), adventuring companies, poisons... breathtakingly well written glimpses into a hundred little things. And, back then, we knew there would be *more* of the stuff coming out, so even if we didn't know much about, say, Archenbridge, it would be detailed later on in an upcoming product. Even after all these years, I'm still using the Grey Boxed Set in my games, and also as a source of inspiration.
Where's that same quality or loving attention to detail in content and writing? Because I don't see it in FRCG anymore. Sure, holes ("mystery", if you define "blank" slate as that) and "freedom" and wonders aplenty everywhere (such as the motes); yet all of it seems to be written without any passion or emotional attachment. For me, at least, you can't compare the two; one is an outstanding and inspiring source, and the other is not. I'm not against change, but pray tell me: where's that same *spirit* and *feel* of the Realms I fell in love with? And why and how did it become the most popular D&D setting, if the "burden of lore" and depth of details in FR was indeed so horrifying as WoTC has claimed?
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