Tallifer
Hero
I'll reserve final judgement till I see actual mechanics, but this really concerns me that WotC is throwing out the 4e baby with the bath water.
Trying to outdo Pathfinder by going back to 3e era mechanics is a doomed business model. Those Pathfinder guys have it pretty good with Paizo, there is little reason for them to switch back. The 1e/2e superfans is an extremely small niche market who are mostly satisfied with the books they already have, and they also have Castles and Crusades and a horde of retroclones.
Unification is nice, and if you can make an edition that pulls back in some of those lapsed fans, great. I'm all for inclusion and making as many people happy as possible. But you MUST keep your 4e base happy, WotC.
Your bread and butter are the 4e fans. They're generating revenue and keeping your lights on now, WotC. Not in some marketer's hypothetical future vision of all D&D fans suddenly coming "home" again.
If you lose even half of those customers, I doubt you'll pick up enough returnees to make up the difference, and 5e will be DOA.
I have the same fears as you do. I think the ship has already sailed on all those fanatics of Pathfinder and the Old School Renaissance. They have the best systems possible for what they like. I think the problem is that Hasbro is putting pressure on the Wizards: would that the Wizards had never sold out to Hasbro!