As I get some distance from seeing things for the first time, I definitely had some huge status quo bias and didn't properly account for how I'd learn the new icons - and there's also the fact that my old browser cache caused big bugs for the first few hours I saw the new site, and that was the period when I made my comments about it.

I bet this sort of thing is very common, and can think of two ways to handle it. One would be not caring, since people will be fine with it in a while anyhow. The other would be marketing and laying groundwork, not like a discussion but more like a marketing campaign and an instruction manual. Hell, I bet there's a book on this problem somewhere.

Aaaanyhow, please don't feel blue because we're jerks. The new site's great, and it will keep improving. Well, hopefully :D