I think it would've helped if you had made a post about the changes when they were made, with a list of what had been changed and why and a clear statement that you were looking for feedback to modify or reverse changes that didn't work. That post would've been a place for people to give you kudos for all your hard work, and it could have encouraged a discussion that was more constructive and less antagonistic.

People naturally get put off when a site that they're comfortable with is suddenly different, and attention naturally gets drawn to the little annoyances. It can help to have a list of what's been changed to make it all more understandable, a promise that bugs and annoyances can be fixed, and examples of cool/helpful changes that help balance out the annoyances. A lot of that came out eventually in the discussion to the posts about the changes, but you missed your chance to set the tone right from the start and so the discussion had more of the feel of a user revolt rather than seeming like part of the process.