NSMB2 sucks though (guest) said:
There's nothing wrong with dispensing a score you think the game deserves. Yet you seem to rationalize the lower score by somewhat overstating the degree of offense committed, say, by the sticker system and lack of conventional experience-based growth. There's hardly anything "frustrating due to their implementation" about picking a sticker and attacking with it.

I'm stating the majority of the issues that really made sure I didn't enjoy the adventure as much as I really wanted to. I can see what the design team was trying to do with the changes, but it all just falls flat on its face.

Since you mention backtracking, is it fair to say that The Thousand Year Door was just as egregiously designed in this regard? Is it not relevant to note that the segmented level design makes "backtracking" about as obnoxious as using "Fly" in the Pokemon overworld?

It all depends, really, as in some games it doesn't seem like a chore. There are far too many elements in PM: SS that felt stale, so the whole idea of having to traipse back and forth for damn special stickers that I had used for fun was annoying. The same goes for popping back to the harbour early in the game on what seemed like a far too regular basis.

Perhaps you could more accurately fault the seclusion of 'thing stickers' in elusive, doorway-bereft grottos around the map since, while a problem easily remedied by always trying to keep one or two door stickers handy, it is an understandably beleaguering system. "Backtracking" is hardly an issue.

As I say, the backtracking was indeed an issue for me in this game. Why? I touch upon it slightly above, but 'backtracking' in itself isn't always bad. The points you mention are equally valid. Some of the puzzles were rather obtuse (for instance the one where stickers are required to open certain doors in a stage), and yes, having to always have spare door stickers to unlock secrets was a bugbear, but certainly not worth mentioning in the review at large due to them normally being mere extra bonuses.

Why emphasize the shorter areas which can be "breezed through in minutes" without noting how some can take up to an hour? Why not emphasize the level variety and creativity unless you simply have a bone to pick?

I did have a bone to pick, and it would be the same bone other fans of the first two PMs would want to pick. Sure, some levels differ in length, but certain stages don't even deserve that name - if going for the SMB3 or SMW style level layout, you tend to expect full levels at each stop (unless it's a Mushroom house, obviously, when you know it's a bonus stage). Here you're fooled into thinking there's more on offer than there actually is. Even the longer levels, though, are not exactly challenging. You have NO reason to fight enemies any more due to the lack of levelling-up, and the battles aren't fun this time (in my opinion the balance is a bit off - not as smooth as before), so it's a case of charge through the standard fare stages, sometimes coming across some clever ideas (there are positives - 6/10 is after all 'above average'), and quickly grab the comet piece. Rinse and repeat.

The actual problems with this game - less concentration on dialogue, some maddening and unintuitive puzzles ("THAT was the solution?"), little character variety and some serious nerve in invisible block placement - would have been more appropriately cited than "bactracking and stickers".

I can live with the lower amount of dialogue. There are still the Toads to talk to, Kersti always has some extra advice if you chat to her, etc. It is a bit sad that Miyamoto-san has had such a strong influence on the way Intelligent Systems handled the final game, though. The puzzles element is what I meant before about the game not quite knowing what it wants to be. Have you read the comments about how Miyamoto was pleased with the changes put into Tingle's Rosey Rupee Land? Maybe he didn't read the reviews discussing some of that game's biggest weaknesses

As the reviewer the content here is entirely at your discretion, but you seem to eschew rightfully calling out more important, almost insultingly bold artistic decisions in favor of knocking features which are fairly tame, considering.

Bold artistic decisions? I didn't notice any, unless you mean the special stickers that I feel could have been developed far better. If they wanted to make it more like a traditional point-and-click with platforming mixed in, that could have worked...but they didn't, and in the end I felt the whole thing was a pretty mess. 'Style over substance' is the comment I put in a previous message, and I still stand by that.

I can't cover every tiny little detail in a review, and it's good to have discussion like this in the comments