the
offline CB is indeed way better in every, but a lot of groups (including mine), have grudgingly switched over to the new one so the players have no choice to use it. Sucky, but there it is.
The rationale of our DM was that he didn't want to hack around with potentially un-errata'ed stuff taken from a pirated feat/power database, or be out of date with new classes and so on, as misguided as that is...I know the patches for new books come out like one or two days later for the pirate version. The offline CB can be patched up at-will by modifying the data yourself. I mean, if that's not superior in every way, I don't know what is.
Buying, equipping items is TERRIBLE in the new builder, but apparently they are revamping that section (thank Crom for that).
I just hope they don't errata my character before we retire this campaign, as I have no intention of playing another 4e game after this. It'll be either 5e, or Pathfinder all the time (I play PF as well, and it's more fun, frankly). I do like 4e optimization better though, because it's like a math puzzle. PF just works, is both simpler and more powerful, with creative use of spells in and out of combat. At level 6 we saved an entire Drow civilization from a Lucodemon invasion, travelled to another world, flew around, managed armies, ...you can't even do 1/2 the things we did until epic in 4e, if that.
Point is, they can keep improving the builder more and more, but the game itself is inherently on rails, and the system affects roleplaying negatively as well. The builder is just a steaming pile of crap, ala South Park's latest episode...They start hinting a good things, then all I read is poo, poo poo flung at my eyes from the page of downloaded material.
E.g. they came out with hybrid cavaliers with no option for a mount. WTF? This is garbage. Stop forcing us to play one-trick pony characters, it drives us more to PF (well, not the melee classes, which are probably more one-trick than 4e guys are...except the overall feel of the game is more dangerous, epic, and memorable as a result)